


Sing the Voices

by Denois



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, I tried to keep it vague while still providing enough context of what's going on, Multi, The violence isn't graphic I think, dark violent and messy, horror themes, more than canon typical injuries, more than canon typical violence, people die, selkie!Dex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:55:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28809213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Denois/pseuds/Denois
Summary: Something dark and evil lurks beneath the waters of Samwell Pond. As incessant storms soak the campus, student after student is lured to a watery demise.Dex is hiding an ancient secret and knows more than he's telling.To what lengths will Nursey go to uncover the truth?What are they each willing to give up in their pursuit?
Relationships: Chris "Chowder" Chow/Caitlin Farmer, Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 54
Kudos: 43
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [soliduck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/soliduck/gifts).



> This is for Soliduck, who requested specifically a fic with horror-mystery themes (and some of the specifics of the au, but spoilers).
> 
> Warning: This is a HORROR-MYSTERY themed fic. There is violence. There is death. I believe it stays in the Mature rather than Explicit category for violence. I believe that the depictions are not graphic or gory. But just, be aware to expect dark themes and situations.
> 
> As usual, a huge thanks to [Draskireis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/draskireis) for the beta read through and cheering. Also thanks to go a bunch of discord pals for helping me workshop some worldbuilding, or just listening to me ramble while I did.

The creature moved through the water silently, whiskers sensing the passage of fish too unaware, or unbothered, by the presence to hide. It was not native to these waters, and those that were had never learned to fear its kind. They weren’t aware of carnivores, predators, of that size, living in the small lake their whole lives.

This time, they were lucky. 

This time, the creature was not interested in them as prey.

This time, the creature had other plans.

* * *

It was still warm enough that the bonfire on the beach of the Pond was kept fairly small. No one wanted to be roasted, even those that had drunkenly (or highly) decided to try to roast marshmallows on it. Still, it was large enough to obscure the reflection of the full moon across the waters, and ruin the night vision of those around it. 

Not that any of the revelers cared. There was alcohol. There were drugs (mostly weed, but a few had others). There were other college students ready to celebrate the release of inhibitions of being away from home.

They were tucked into a secluded cove away from the patrols of campus police and had no cares beyond that night. 

There were speakers, somewhere, wafting music through the crowd. There must have been one source, because the music was all the same, though at times it seemed to come from multiple directions. 

There was laughter. It punctuated the chatter and flirting. Musical giggles. Uproarious guffaws. Heartfelt chuckles. Mostly, flirtatious. Always flirtatious. 

There were so many people who’d shown up to the party. Private and unadvertised. Friends and friends of friends. Dormmates and crushes.

* * *

Pupils expanded to the width of its eyes, the creature moved toward the surface where flickering orange light lanced into the gentle currents of the lake. The party, and there must be a party with the fire on the beach, was muffled and muted by the water, a blur of sound to its ears. 

It moved closer, just outside the range of the light of the fire, and broke the surface of the water. The creature had spent a long time under the water, so it took several long breaths of the humid night air before slowing and stilling. 

Eyes transfixed on the party.

Nostrils quivering on breaths full of information about the students. The students, drunk and high, stupid with lust and freedom.

Who were all safely on solid ground

None of them were in the water. 

None of them were in danger.

* * *

The young man took a slow breath in. He didn’t mind the crowd. He didn’t mind the light or even the warmth of the bonfire. Or at least, he wouldn’t. If he was at home. If he was with people he knew. 

But he was in a new place. A place with a reputation. And he needed to establish his. He needed to get into the water.

The blonde woman off to the side, he knew her, so she smiled as he approached her friends.

“You know what would be fun? Skinny dipping? What do you say ladies?” He raised his eyebrows and gave a sly smile. 

One of the other women laughed in response and most of them just broke away in ones and twos to join other groups. 

In the end, he was alone. 

In the end, no one saw him walk into the water.

* * *

Dex walked out of the water on the far shore from campus. The full moon glinted on the beads of water on his skin and made his skin seem to nearly glow. It was still summer, technically, and the cool night breeze barely raised gooseflesh on his bare skin as he walked through the shallows to where he’d left his clothes. He pulled them on swiftly and silently before moving through the woods back to the campus. 

He exited the tree cover from from the Pond and the party on its shores, hurrying through the artificial illumination of the campus lights to his dorm.

“Dex? Why is your hair all wet?” 

He froze on the edge of the common room when he heard Chowder’s voice.

“Chill, Dexterity. You fall into the Pond? You better be more careful.”

At Nursey’s voice, he squeezed his eyes closed and forced himself to take a deep breath.

It had been too much to hope that his teammates would actually follow the lights out guidelines that Jack had provided them. He should have known better. He shouldn’t have counted on the Freshman Athlete Dorm (FAD) common room being free of hockey players. 

He turned with his brows raised, and then slowly opened his eyes. “I didn’t _fall_ into the Pond. We aren’t all as gaumy as you.”

“Oh! That’s good. No offense to Samwell! But the Pond doesn’t look very clean. But, um, why is your hair wet, then?”

Dex sighed. “I went for a swim. On purpose. The Pond’s fine.”

“Gross, Poindexter. Go shower, don’t get Pond scum on me.” Nursey started poking him in the leg with the eraser end of his pencil and Dex rolled his eyes in response. 

“Shut up, Nurse.”

“Um, actually, it might not be a bad idea. Sorry! Just, you don’t know what’s in that water.”

“Yeah. It’s late anyway, right. Early practice tomorrow.” He turned away from them and trudged up to his dorm for a shower and some sleep. 

Don’t know what’s in the water. Seriously. He knew exactly what was in the water and it was fine.


	2. Chapter 2

Saturdays during the season were for games, so Saturdays in preseason were for practice, chilling, partying, and _maybe_ getting a head start on homework. Nursey agreed with C that one of the best places to chill after practice on Saturday was at the Haus, because Bitty was usually baking and he often offloaded the results to C and Nursey could benefit by proximity. The other best place was by the trees on Lake Quad but he had a hard time getting C to chill with him there. 

Since he’d asked C to chill with him in the FAD common room the night before because of stress brains, it seemed like a good idea to chill with him at the Haus for the afternoon.

He and Chowder were three quarters of the way through a plate of brownies, and on the third story about the “smartest, nicest, most beautiful woman in the world” from Chowder’s bio class, when the doorbell rang. He met Chowder’s eyes across the table but only got a shrug in response. They didn’t live there, it wasn’t really their place to answer the door. But then again, Bitty hadn’t even acknowledged it.

Nursey had scooted his chair back and was about to stand by the time he heard the door open and Shitty’s voice ring through the first floor. 

“Lebow.”

“Knight.” 

The answering greeting wasn’t a voice he recognized, and he didn’t know a Lebow, so he stood up anyway and peeked out into the hall to see what was up.

“What brings the Chads to our humble abode?”

“You know what brings me here, Knight. Give us back our Frosh. You don’t get to haze our guys.”

That at least explained who the guy was. Apparently one of the Lax Bros. Chad L. It didn’t explain what he was talking about. Nursey was pretty sure the hockey team wasn’t hazing any of the lacrosse team. 

“Listen, Lebow, if you can’t handle the hash, don’t smoke. We don’t want any of your guys, Frosh or otherwise, besmirching the sanctity of this fine Haus. We certainly wouldn’t intentionally bring one here.”

“Chad Mathis. He wasn’t at team lunch. He knows not to miss. Ergo, your…organization has clearly hidden him away somewhere as some sort of hazing thing related to our rivalry.”

Shitty adjusted his stance in the doorway and Nursey realized that he’d answered it wearing nothing but his boxers. “False accusations of kidnapping? Really, Lebow? You can’t actually be stupid enough to think we’d risk a felony for the Chads. Which only leaves defamation of character.”

“Look, Knight. I don’t fucking care, ok? Just give him back and we’ll forget it happened. Per the pact of 2012, Froshes are supposed to be off limits.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, brah. He’s not here. We haven’t done shit to any of the Chads, Frosh or otherwise.” Shitty shifted again and his tone changed, becoming slightly less openly hostile though no less superior. “He probably just pulled last night and is still sleeping it off. Frosh away from home for the first time found another Frosh out on their own and they’re back at the dorms bumping uglies or mid walk of shame. It happens. Look for your errant Chad M elsewhere.”

The door slammed to punctuate Shitty’s last comment and Nursey had to blink to adjust his eyes to the sudden loss of sun glare. He raised his brows at Shitty but only got a shrug in response as Shitty padded back into the den and plopped onto the couch.

* * *

NCAA regulations required one day of every week to have no practices or games, no team activities. As typical, Samwell selected Sundays for that day. The alumni relations office was closed and there were no classes. It was still early in the semester, and while he had homework, there were no projects due or exams to study for. It was a good day for a swim.

It was easy to find the same secluded cove that he’d used two days prior and strip down, leaving his clothes in a protected hollow of a tree root. He walked into the water up to his waist before diving beneath the surface. 

The Pond was nothing like the waters of his home. A lake, not the ocean. Full of complacent fish and small lost items from students: several shoes, sporting equipment, Nursey’s laptop, and a fair few phones. Not at all like what slept beneath the waves of the Atlantic. But Samwell was his home, for a time. And he had no other options for places to swim. So, he would learn the Pond, and it would feel like home. Eventually.

The Pond was deeper than Dex expected. Far deeper than the sunlight could reach through the murky water. Near the center of the lake, there was a crevice, a quite large one at that. Large enough that he could have swam through with several other people, though he entered it alone. Inside, multiple caves seemed to branch off in different directions. One day he might explore it, with equipment and planning. But he didn’t relish the idea of getting lost in an underwater cave system with no way to get help and no way out. So he turned back out of the opening and made his way to the surface for air.

He avoided the campusward edge of the Pond. He had no desire to be seen swimming, nor any desire to look at waterlogged and ruined electronics that cost more than his entire wardrobe. Instead, he simply swam with the current. Went with the flow.

It was peaceful under the water. The stress of life seemed to wash away. Sound didn’t work the same, and there was far less light. Nerves that were constantly on edge above were instead honed and tuned in, processing the information in the movement of the waves. 

So he noticed when he saw something that seemed ... wrong. Nursey would say anomalous or incongruous. Nursey was pretentious enough to pull that shit off. Dex just thought it seemed weird. 

Dex was, he decided, right.

Small fish darted through the figure’s hair. He didn’t look to see which soft fleshy bits had already succumbed to predation. Not because death bothered him, he was too well acquainted with it for that, he just didn’t see what good the information would do. The face could have once belonged any one of hundreds of people he’d seen over the past week. But it was definitely the body of someone who had been alive the previous week.

No bones of a long dead stranger. This time.

A lot of things manage to find their way to the bottom of bodies of water. Many end up stuck there for a while.

It was raining when Dex exited the Pond. Storming, really, with sheets of rain pouring down. His clothes were soaked by the time he was fully dressed. But at least this time no one would comment on his wet hair.

* * *

There was still time before his second Monday class started, so Nursey wasn’t really surprised when Tristan twisted around in his seat to talk to Hayli beside Nursey. They were apparently friends and he wasn’t entirely certain why they hadn’t just sat next to each other. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but they were talking right next to him and weren’t really being quiet.

“Have you seen Chaddius since Friday?”

“Who?”

“Chaddius. You know, kinda tall, medium brown hair, brown eyes. Attractive in a sleep-your-way-to-a-promotion kind of way?”

Nursey glanced at Laurene to his right but she was busy working on what looked suspiciously like Calculus. He wanted no part of that. His options seemed to be continuing to listen to the dubious conversation on his left or distracting himself. No one responded to his text in group chat.

“Oh, the guy who wanted to go skinny dipping? No. Why?”

“Apparently no one has.”

Hayli snorted. “Ok. Decided to skip town when no one took him up on it. Some guys _cannot_ handle rejection.”

“No. Like. For real. Apparently they’ve talked to his family and the lacrosse team is supes concerned and they’re like making the college do a whole investigation.”

“Meanwhile, he probably woke up in a truck stop bathroom and is just too embarrassed to show his face. Seriously, Trist. It’s been one weekend. People take off for the weekend all the time.”

“Hays, this is serious. Apparently he’s not like that so peeps are really worried. Like, _foul play_ kind of worried.”

“Ok, but that’s what I’m saying. He’s not like that so if it happened he’d lay low.”

“No, I mean, like, he’s the kind of guy who wakes up in a truck stop bathroom, calls his daddy’s people to have the security footage erased, gets a Lyft back to campus then hits on the driver and thinks it’s a tip.”

The professor walked in and Tristan turned back to face the front with one last eyebrow raise at Hayli. 

Nursey would have written the exchange off, except he had a few extra minutes between that class and his third class so he ran over to the little student convenience store at the Commons to grab a Powerade and some snacks. The post boards in the Commons were completely covered with flyers about the missing Chad, offering rewards, asking for information, desperate.

Before, after, during, and around his last two classes he kept overhearing whispers and murmurs. 

“Is it safe?”

“Missing.”

“...they think he might be….”

“Murderer on campus.”

“Ransom.”

He was pretty sure that last one wasn’t talking about his teammate.

* * *

Dex was neck deep in a problem set and listening to Chowder talk about his crush (apparently she’d answered Dr. Hawkens’ trick questions flawlessly) when Nursey arrived at Founders. Or at least, at the table that Dex and Chowder had staked out for Frog Study Time about half an hour before Nursey announced himself by slapping a flyer onto the space between their laptops. Dex didn’t look up. 

They had the problem set from CS, and he had multiple assignments for French. The reading responses for History and WGSS could wait a couple of days. But CS couldn’t wait and more importantly, he and Chowder were working on it together and he had to pull his weight on it. 

He might not be talkative (“garrulous, loquacious, voluble” Nursey’s voice supplied in his brain), but he was a social creature, and he enjoyed spending time with the Frogs. If Chowder didn’t need him, well, Nursey wouldn’t invite him to join.

Nursey tapped the flyer, finally dragging Dex’s attention to the picture printed on it. “Did you guys hear about this?”

The flyer had a large heading: Missing. Only slightly smaller below the picture was “Reward” and “Call With Information.” 

“Apparently a student is missing. Like, not on a bender missing, but missing missing.”

“Oh no! They’re sure he didn’t just go visit a friend at Harvard or Brown or something?” Chowder was staring at Nursey, who’d finally decided to take a seat across from them.

Dex frowned and looked at the picture again. It was difficult to tell, a xeroxed photo in harsh library fluorescents rather than the dark and murky depths obscured by water and early decomposition, but he was pretty sure he recognized the face on the flyer. “Bit late for this.”

He turned back to his laptop. 

“Uh, what?”

As he’d thought, trying to figure out where he’d left off on the last problem was difficult. “There’s nothing to be done.” He shrugged and tried to focus again. 

It wasn’t like there was much anyone could have done for days at this point, and it wasn’t like he could call in a tip that the missing person was a body at the bottom of the Pond. There’d be questions. Several people had seen Chaddius at the party, the authorities would find him before long.

“Yo, chill Poindexter. He might be a Lax Bro, but it’s still mad weird that he’d just disappear. Just because they’re assholes doesn’t mean they don’t deserve some compassion.”

Dex blinked slowly and took a deep breath. 

“Does this mean the campus isn’t safe? The Lax Bros never go anywhere alone.” Chowder was looking back and forth between them and while he might have actually been worried about campus safety, he was probably just trying to avoid an argument.

The problem was that Dex didn’t really have a way to explain to the other Frogs why there wasn’t a reason to worry either. And like, sure, he felt bad that the guy was dead, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. 

He sighed. “He was at a party last weekend, right? He probably got separated, wandered off drunk or something. Campus is probably as safe as any university campus, which-” He broke off and shrugged again. It wasn’t a high bar. “They’ll find him, but it’s not like sending out a bunch of untrained students is going to help with that.”

He paused and noticed they didn’t look convinced. “Like you said, either he’s fine and just staying some place no one knows about and he’ll turn up, or he’s been missing for three days. There’s nothing a bunch of college students can do.”

Nursey turned to Chowder in a way that was clearly intentional to make a point. “Do you think we should offer dorm escort service?”

“Um?”

“Chill. You know what I mean. Offer to escort people to their dorms at night so that they don’t have to walk alone.”

“Oh! That would be hella nice for people. But then don’t we have to walk alone?”

Dex tuned them out and focused on his problem set again. It wasn’t going to solve itself.

* * *

On Thursday, they dragged the Pond. 

The body of Chaddius Mathis was found at 1:37 PM.

By the time Nursey’s class let out at 2:15 PM, word was spreading throughout campus, by word of mouth and text. Nursey’s mind was racing as he walked back to the dorms. Hayli and Tristan had mentioned Chaddius being at a party on Friday. On Saturday, Chad L. had come to the Haus because Chad M. was missing. He had to have drowned on Friday night. Friday night, the same night…. 

Chowder opened the door to his dorm and Nursey stepped in, grateful that Dex had work and it was just him and Chowder for a study session, not a full Frog group at the library. He waited impatiently for the door to close before turning to Chowder with barely contained urgency.

“C!” Nursey hissed. “They found Chaddius in the Pond and the last time he was seen was at a party by the Pond where he was trying to get people to go skinny dipping with him. _Last Friday._ ” 

Chowder just gave him a confused look, clearly not following the obvious to the logical conclusion.

“Last Friday, when we saw Dex in the FAD common room with wet hair, saying he’d _been swimming in the Pond_?”

Finally, Chowder put it together, gasping with eyes wide and his hand pulled up to cover his mouth. “You think Dex went skinny dipping with Chaddius? He could have drowned, too!”

“No, C. Dex killed Chaddius!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all you lawyers out there, Drask has already side-eyed me very hard for having Shitty proclaim defamation of character. He's bullshitting because he thinks he can get away with it. 
> 
> Please do not drag me more on this, I've already spent two hours reading Massachusetts case law for something I wasn't actually trying to make be factually legally correct just because of the research compulsion. The research hole for law is too big! It's a black hole! (That's why it's Black's Law Dictionary, isn't it? I'm onto something.) I'll never escape! It's bad enough when I have to do this for tax law stuff actually related to my field.


	3. Chapter 3

“Um, I’m pretty sure Dex didn’t kill Chaddius, Nursey.”

They were sat on the couch in Chowder’s common area because his suitemate, Josh, was still in class. Looking back, Nursey probably should have verified that before announcing his theory, but it wasn’t important. What was important was explaining to Chowder how Dex definitely killed Chad M.

“He did. He definitely did. Listen. Okay, chill. Right.” He took a deep breath and sorted his thoughts. “We saw him Friday night and his hair was wet. He admitted he’d been swimming in the Pond. Saturday, Chad L. came over and asked Shitty about Chad M. because he’d missed their team lunch. Monday, I heard Tristan and Hayli talking about Chad M. being missing and that he’d been at a party on the Beach on Friday asking people to go skinny dipping. Plus, the school and lacrosse team were all bugging about him being missing. But when I showed the flyer to you and Dex, he just completely brushed it off. Right?”

“I think he’s just reserved and doesn’t get worked up easily.” 

“Ok, but his first response to hearing someone was missing was ‘it’s too late for this.’ Like he already knew that Chaddius was dead. And then a bit later he said that Chaddius had been at a party Friday, but how did he know that? I knew that because Tristan and Hayli had been at the same party.”

At that Chowder frowned but didn’t deny the fact it added up.

“Dex knew Chaddius was at the party on Friday. We know that Chaddius disappeared Friday night and they pulled him from the Pond. We know that Dex was quote unquote swimming on Friday night. Dex already knew it was too late to search for Chaddius on Monday and didn’t seem upset or concerned at all. Dex definitely murdered Chaddius.”

He looked at Chowder and waited. After a long time of Chowder making various faces while he apparently thought of counter arguments and then rejected them as incorrect, Chowder finally met his eyes. 

“Maybe he just _saw_ Chaddius die. Or maybe it was self defense.”

“Then why didn’t he say anything? He knew people were looking for the guy, why not say what happened?”

“It’s just all really circumstantial. I don’t think Dex would kill someone.”

Nursey sighed and put a hand on Chowder’s shoulder. “I don’t really want to believe it either. And you’re right, I don’t have definitive proof, yet. But maybe we should just make sure not to be alone with him. Just in case.”

“He definitely wouldn’t kill us!”

* * *

The disappearances continued at a rate of about one student a week. After the third, Dex no longer had to call in anonymous tips claiming to have seen them near the pond shortly before they went missing. The authorities started dragging the lake automatically after each new report. 

The series of student deaths combined with a string of storms to create a dismal mood going into October. Then midterms started and five students went missing over a 37 hour period. 

The start of the hockey season was looming, leaving Dex with little time to swim, but he needed to get under the Pond. He needed to explore those caves. He had to find out what was down there before anyone else decided they were worth exploring. Before anyone else got too close.

Still, despite Nursey’s claims to the contrary, Dex wasn’t a complete idiot. He did not immediately try swimming into the caves to try to find what lurked within. 

Instead, he buried himself in research. Specifically the third sub basement of Founders where the microfiche machines were located. Only the last hundred years or so of four hundred years worth of newspapers and correspondence for the area had been digitized.

Of course, more recent articles and books were more likely to result in actual scientific information about exploration of the cave system, if there was any. If anyone had ever explored it. But it felt good to look into any previous mentions of Lake Samwell as well. After all, maybe it had been explored before the lake even existed and it was a known quantity. Maybe there were old legends and folklore associated with it. 

Anything was possible with caves.

It did only take a few days for his uncles to ship down some cave diving equipment. But laying a permanent guide line by himself was going to be difficult and he needed to make sure he had plenty of time on each dive. 

It would be really embarrassing if he ended up drowning in the caves and joining the list of names lost in the Pond.

He would explore those caves eventually. But first, a deep dig through the reference items in Founders didn’t hurt and allowed him to stick with short swims when he could manage between classes, practice, and work.

At least the storms continued to give him an excuse for his wet hair, though Bitty had repeatedly clucked at him to wear a hat. As though he needed to be worried about a little water in his hair. 

As though rain was what was dangerous on campus.

* * *

After three weeks of surreptitiously following Dex around campus, Chowder stopped joining Nursey for the missions. He couldn’t really blame Chowder. Most days they were stymied by the fact that Dex got out of class earlier than they did on Wednesdays and Thursdays, which meant they had to find him on campus before they could follow him.

Multiple times they’d managed to find him, only for him to go to work. The rest of the times that they managed to find him, they just followed him to Founders. 

Chowder disagreed with Nursey about it being odd that he kept going down to the microfiche machines in the sub basements. But it was definitely odd. Who used microfiche in the 2010s? Suspicious people. Shady people. Murderers, perhaps.

Even without Chowder, Nursey finally got lucky on a Friday afternoon just before the season started. His Directed Studies: Literature professor let them out of class early. Apparently her house had some flooding from all the rain and immediately after class was the only time someone could come out to look at it. 

Regardless, he was on Lake Quad when he saw a familiar shade of damp ginger hair head past Kotter on the trail that wound around the Pond for a while. Dex had gotten there surprisingly fast, since his Comp Sci class would have been even further away than Nursey’s class, but that was something to worry about another time. Right then, what was pressing was the fact that the path branched off on the other side of Kotter, one fork leading to the South Quad with the Econ and History buildings (which Dex shouldn’t need to visit on a Friday afternoon), and the other eventually turning away from the Pond to go to the commuter student parking lots (which Dex should never need to visit).

Nursey did briefly consider that Dex might be taking a scenic route around to the South entrance of Founders, just to disappear behind the microfiche machines again, but Dex didn’t take that fork. Nursey continued to follow him and slowly pulled his phone out of his pocket to text Chowder.

> Nursey: Dex going somewhere. Not Library. Not Work. Call [phone emoji]

As Nursey suspected, when the path twisted around toward the commuter student parking lots, Dex didn’t follow it. He pushed through the bushes near the edge of the path and into the woods surrounding the Pond.

Eyes wide, and breath dangerously shallow, Nursey pressed the button to call Chowder. He couldn’t wait for Chowder to call him. 

“C, he’s definitely doing something. I’m going to follow him, but I need backup.”

“Nursey, I think he’s probably just trying to take a walk to think or something.”

Nursey scoffed into the phone. “In the rain? In the woods? He left the path, C. He took the Beach path south, past South Quad, but then when it turned toward the parking lots, he walked into the woods.”

“Nurse-”

“I’m going to follow him, but I can’t let him hear me. I’ll text if he changes direction. I’ll wait for you before I do anything other than watch.”

He disconnected the call. Chowder would be there. Chowder was reliable like that. 

Stepping into the woods was more difficult than Dex made it look. First of all, the bushes were pokey and rough. Second of all, the ground was uneven. He’d thought he’d be fine because he walked across the grass on the quads all the time. Hell, he walked on NYC pavement. But this was soft and yielding and had never been leveled by machinery. He nearly rolled his ankle less than a yard into the woods. 

But he was good. He was determined. And he was in danger of losing Dex, so he persevered and pushed through. 

He still nearly lost Dex because Dex knew where he was going and how to move around trees and stuff. Technically, he probably did lose Dex because he lost sight of him, but that was fine as long as he figured out where Dex went. That was where he almost lost Dex. 

He lost sight of Dex and he nearly missed seeing Dex’s stuff stuck down by the roots of a tree. When his eyes caught on the glint of the button on Dex’s jeans, he pulled up short and stared for several minutes. It didn’t make sense. Dex’s clothes were piled next to his backpack. They weren’t really in the woods. This was just a wooded area on the Samwell campus. People could go through it at any time, really. Why would Dex strip in the middle of campus?

Fine, it wasn’t quite like stripping on Lake Quad, but it also wasn’t far off of it. And based on how many times Nursey’d been snagged by branches and twigs and stuff, it couldn’t be safe to run through the woods naked. Surely people would have noticed cuts and welts and stuff in the locker room.

So, probably, Dex hadn’t kept going through the woods. It didn’t make sense for him to do that. Even murderers probably didn’t want the attention of a public indecency charge. Which left skinny dipping in the Pond.

Nursey looked out across the water. It was smooth and unbroken. He couldn’t see the whole thing, of course. It was a pretty good sized lake. The only reasonable conclusion was that Dex had managed to swim around to an area that he couldn’t see before he’d looked across the water. 

Dex was a lobster fisher. He was probably a quick swimmer. But he had to come back for his clothes before he returned to campus, so Nursey figured he could just wait there.

The trees provided some cover from the intermittent deluges of rain, but not enough that he was willing to remove any of his books from his bag and read. He’d been playing games on his phone for over twenty minutes when he heard something moving through the brush and looked over to see Chowder approaching.

“Chill, you found me.”

“It would have been hella difficult not to, Nursey. You kinda left an obvious trail.” 

Nursey looked behind Chowder and it did look like there were a few snapped twigs and stomped plants, but it wasn’t mad obvious. He raised an eyebrow and looked back at Chowder.

Chowder ignored his eyebrow. “Where’s Dex?”

“Think he’s in the water. He left his clothes and bag here, so he’ll be back.”

“He left his clothes?” Chowder dropped onto the ground next to him as he asked the question that didn’t really merit an answer because the clothes were _right there_.

“Ch’yeah. Swimming au natural.”

“I never really thought of Dex as the type to go skinny dipping.”

“It’s weird. But according to Hayli, the first victim had been asking people to go skinny dipping. So it makes sense.”

Chowder hummed. “So, we’re just going to sit here and wait?”

“Yup.” 

With Chowder there, time seemed to move faster. Still, he’d looked at the time on his phone enough to know that at least thirty to forty minutes had passed when an odd shape appeared in the water. There was no accompanying splashing that he associated with people swimming, just the appearance of a small round shape. 

A small round shape that moved toward them. 

A small round shape that suddenly changed.

Dex walked through the water, a sudden break in the clouds allowing afternoon sunlight to glint off the water beading on his exposed skin.


	4. Chapter 4

"I knew it! You're luring people to their deaths in the Pond! C, if he starts singing, block your ears and run."

Dex stood in the shallow water, stared at his two best friends in the world, and heaved a sigh. “That’s sirens, not selkies.”

“Dex? Why were you swimming in the Pond? You know it’s not safe. Unless you are why it’s not safe. You’re not why it’s not safe, right?” Chowder’s eyebrows were doing a complicated dance between worry and judgement.

“Of course he’s why it’s not safe. You just saw him change shape, C! That’s sus. That’s mad suspish.”

Dex sighed again and reached up to unhook the harness from his chest. “Can I be dressed for this conversation?”

"Don't listen to him, C. He's going to use magic on you and lure you to your death."

“Really? For fuck’s sake.” He stopped messing with the harness and tossed his selkie coat over onto the shore on the opposite side of Nursey and Chowder from his clothes. “There. Happy? I don’t have my coat. I can’t change or do anything. Can I please put on some clothes and we can talk, or are you just going to keep making unfounded accusations?”

Chowder elbowed Nursey but Nursey just leaned over and started whisper arguing with him in response. 

It wasn’t that Dex was uncomfortable with the nudity in front of his teammates; they shared a dressing room and Nursey’s cubby was right next to his. But while it was a somewhat hidden cove, he was still completely in the open in public. Plus, he’d just lost his layer of seal blubber in changing back to human, so the wind against the water on his skin was pretty cold.

Finally, Nursey spoke out loud again. “Take the harness off, slowly, and toss it over, too. Then I’ll check your clothes for weapons and you can get dressed.”

He let out another sigh and slowly reached up to unhook the harness. It suddenly felt like a lot of effort to go through the motions. Unhooking the latches. Letting it slide off his arms. Gathering it in one hand and tossing it to the side. 

It wasn’t the worst reaction his friends could have had to finding out he was a selkie. But it was definitely not the easy acceptance he’d been foolish enough to hope for in the quiet of his own brain. 

Nursey moved to position himself between Dex and his coat, then picked up Dex’s clothes and checked the pockets. Chowder grabbed Dex’s boxer briefs and undershirt while Nursey was checking the rest of his clothes. 

Finally, reassured perhaps, Nursey took the two pocket knives and the multitool that he found and put them in his own pockets before passing Dex his jeans, flannel, socks and boots.

Once he was dressed they both looked at him expectantly. 

“Yo, talk then.”

He wasn’t sure where to start really. The beginning, probably, but where the beginning was depended on who you asked. Which didn’t clarify anything for where to start explaining what was going on to Nursey and Chowder. He’d just have to try to give them all the information that he had and hope he put it in an order that made sense.

“So, like you saw, I’m a selkie. I can change into a harbor seal. It’s, whatever. To answer Chowder’s questions, I know that the Pond isn’t safe. It’s probably safer for me than other people, but yeah, I know. I’m not why it’s not safe. I didn’t kill anyone. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s causing all the deaths. I _think_ I have an idea, but I can’t be sure. There’s some caves under the lake and I need to explore those to find out. Which is what I was doing today.”

“You’d been swimming the night of the party. You were being a seal.”

“Ayuh.”

“And you killed Chaddius when he saw you as a seal. Then you’ve been killing people since. That’s why you said it was too late when the flyers were up about Chaddius being missing.”

Dex hadn’t thought his shoulders could drop any further, but like many things, he was wrong about that. “No. I saw the party. I even heard him talking about swimming. I left the area so I wouldn’t be seen. Stopped swimming even. Saw you two in the common room. I saw his body caught on some rocks a couple of days later.”

“And you didn’t think that was worth notifying the police about?”

He didn’t stop the eye roll. His irritation was deserved at this point. “How exactly was I going to explain that I’d seen his body underwater in the Pond? I figured there were dozens of people at the party who saw him and one of them would speak up. After two days of all of them covering their own damn asses, I called in an anonymous tip about it so they’d check the Pond.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Had to call in the next two people also, though I hadn’t actually seen them around the Pond before they disappeared.”

“Cave diving is dangerous, Dex.” Chowder was frowning and he looked legitimately concerned.

“Ayuh. Did a cavern dive when I found the entrance, but I can only hold my breath for about thirty minutes, so I hadn’t really wanted to risk getting lost or trapped. That’s what the harness was for. We, uh, we’ve figured out a few ways to rig guideline reels onto it. Not easy to do tie-offs solo as a seal, but, made it work.”

“So, you’ve just been exploring the caves.”

“Um, no? Today’s the first day I’ve had a chance to explore. And like I said, it’s not easy to do the tie-offs as a seal and I can only stay down so long, so I still haven’t gone very far.”

“Dex?”

Dex looked over at Chowder’s question.

“What do you think is in the caves? And why do you think there’s something in the caves?”

He scratched at the back of his neck and made a face. He knew that his hunch was a long shot. He had no real logic to believe it was linked to the old selkie tales and children’s stories, but his research hadn’t turned up anything more likely. “There’s an oral history among selkies that a long time ago, ages ago, there were a bunch of sea monsters? Kaiju maybe? Something like that to give you an idea of scale and power. And they basically made the planet a shithole and all the selkies around the world got together and decided to do something about it and they sealed-”

Nursey snorted and Dex rolled his eyes in response before continuing.

“-the monsters away so that the planet was good for people and other animals and stuff. Most of them were in the oceans, but I know Lake Baikal has at least one. Of course, Lake Baikal is gigantic and Lake Samwell is tiny. But, it’s the only thing I can think of.” He stopped and met Chowder’s eyes. “I think there’s a monster in the caves and I think it needs to be resealed.”

Nursey full out snickered this time and Dex did his best not to take it personally. It was just one of his best friends laughing about a core part of his existence and the history of his people.

Instead, he focused on Chowder who was chewing on his lip.

“That’s a lot. A hella lot.”

“Ch’yeah. A lot of bullshit.”

“Nursey!”

“What? It’s unbelievable. Literally not able to be believed.”

Dex sighed again and rotated his shoulders. “You _literally_ saw me change from a seal to a person, but sure, the fact that I might be trying to protect the town and the world, that’s the unbelievable part.”

Nursey shrugged at him with the lazy chill expression he affected off the ice. “IDK dude. It just seems more likely that you’re the one drowning people.”

Closing his eyes, Dex counted out three slow breaths before facing Nursey and Chowder again. “If that’s what you think of me, then whatever.”

He couldn’t force them to believe him, so he left. Back out of the woods, back to FAD, back to his dorm. His friends thought he was a murderer.

He lay on his bed and waited for the police.

* * *

“Nursey?”

Chowder’s question made Nursey drag his gaze away from the spot where Dex had disappeared. The tone indicated that Chowder thought Nursey was the one who had done something wrong, so Nursey frowned as he did. He wasn’t the one who’d just walked off in the middle of a conversation.

“Do you really think that Dex is a murderer? Still?” Chowder wasn’t looking at him, which somehow made it worse.

Nursey took a moment to think. To think about everything Dex had just told them. It was convoluted and complicated. The truth was supposed to be simple.

“It's just the most logical conclusion, right? Occam's razor. Dex happening to see the first victim shortly before and after his death and not being the murderer is a pretty big coincidence. There being some mythical monster napping under the Pond is just unbelievable.“

He could tell that Chowder’s expression changed. A different kind of thoughtful as he continued to look out over the Pond. 

“Ok, but, like, we saw Dex change from a seal.”

Which was true. It was true. “Yeah, yeah. That did happen. Mad unusual, that.”

“So, we can kind of go with some mythical things are real. Right?”

Nursey scratched at his jaw. He’d shaved that morning, but it was already prickling with stubble and rough under his fingers. It was a comforting motion, grounding and reminding him that this was all real. 

“Fair. I don’t think he would have faked that. He didn’t know we were here so he wouldn’t have known to set it up.”

The breath that Chowder heaved was probably at least partly intended to signal his impatience. “ _And_ it’s _Dex_. I know you two don't always see eye to eye, but have you ever seen him do _anything_ that would make you think he would kill someone?”

Nursey opened his mouth to respond, then closed it. It was kind of a big question. What would it take to push Poindexter over that edge? He was pretty sure everyone had a line that would push them to that point. But Chowder wasn’t asking about a hypothetical self defense situation. 

Did Nursey really believe that Dex would kill the people who had been killed over the past few weeks? He had when he made the claim initially.

“Well, I mean. Chaddius was a Lax bro.”

It was weak, even to his own ears.

“Nursey.”

Nursey rolled his eyes. “No. He doesn’t even fight or anything. I'm the only one he doesn't back down from or redirect.”

Chowder finally aimed a sideways glance at him. “Because you refuse to let him.”

The comment didn’t merit acknowledgement. Chowder was just being rude.

“He might kill his homework. but fine. You're right. He probably didn't kill all the people. Probably not any of the people. We've been following him most of the last few weeks anyway.” 

Chowder finally turned to face him and hit him with the full force of his disappointed look.

He was pretty sure that Chowder was wielding that look intentionally, but it was still working. 

“I just-.” He broke off with a sigh before starting again. “I didn’t want to admit that my first deduction was wrong.”

He hadn’t thought it was possible for Chowder to look more disappointed, but he was immediately proven wrong shortly before Chowder’s expression turned to just being done.

“Whelp. You’re a dumbass. Conclusions follow from evidence, you don't get to make evidence fit your preconceived conclusions. You aren't the police. So, go apologize to our _friend_ who you just called a _murderer_ and a liar to his face multiple times.”

Then he walked off in the same direction Dex had taken to return to campus, leaving Nursey alone in the woods with his thoughts.

* * *

Somehow the knock on his door came both later and earlier than he’d expected. He’d double checked to make sure he had turned off all his electronics and only had what he would need if they arrested him. He couldn’t afford bail. He had no illusions that being innocent would prevent him from being arrested. It was better to just plan for the eventuality.

Eventually, finally, too soon, there was a knock on his door. 

“Nurse?”

“Yo, Poindexter. Can I come in?”

Dex looked past Nursey but didn’t see anyone else approaching, so he stepped back into his dorm, the open door an invitation to follow if Nursey wanted to. He waited until he heard the door click shut before speaking again. 

“You don’t have to keep an eye on me until the police arrive. I’m not going anywhere.” 

He could. As a selkie, he could. All he needed was to get to the coast and he could disappear. He could disappear as Will Poindexter forever if it really came down to it. He could, but he wouldn’t.

“Fuck. Uh, chill. The cops aren’t coming. I didn’t-. Fuck.”

Dex turned and looked at Nursey, whose hands were gripping the back of his neck.

“You’ve been waiting for the cops to show up.”

Dex shrugged one shoulder. “My first time being accused of murder, but Angela Lansbury led me to believe that would happen.”

“Right. I shouldn’t have accused you of killing those people.”

“It’s fine.” He wanted to laugh, bitterly, at the absurdity (irony, inanity, farcicality, still Nursey’s voice offered alternatives in his mind) of reassuring Nursey that it was fine to accuse him of murder. “You believe what you believe. It’s better to be honest about it, right? Better than pretending when you don’t trust me.”

“Ch’yeah, but I do trust you. Okay? I mean, maybe not at first. When it was just Chaddius and we still didn’t know each other really. I might have believed it a little then. IDK.” He turned and rubbed at his neck again before continuing. “I think I just felt like it could be true and then the idea of having figured it out was really appealing. So, I kept believing it. Even when you didn’t do anything suspicious. Except for spend a ton of time with the microfiche machines. That’s mad suspish, actually.”

“I was researching the Pond to see if the caves had been explored or there were weird currents I hadn’t noticed or something. Wait, how do you know I was using the old microfiche machines?”

Nursey turned back to him with a forced grin. “Chill. I might have been following you to see if you were killing people.” 

At that, Dex had to close his eyes. “Since the first week of class?”

“Second, but ch’yeah. Pretty much.”

“That at least explains how you found me today.”

“Oh, uh, also, sorry for invading your privacy.”

Dex waved a hand to dismiss the words. “I was planning to find a way to tell you, well, my friends, anyway. I just. I’d really hoped for a better reaction, you know?” At that he did huff a bitter laugh. “Always the chance that things will go badly. Prejudice or fear or disbelief. Shunning. I just didn’t expect it from my friends.” 

“Ch’yeah. It’s worse, hurts more, when it’s people you’re close to. I get that.”

“I’m sorry.” The words somehow felt like they escaped without his permission and like he had to force them out at the same time. “I’m sorry that anyone’s made you feel like that. And I’m even more sorry if I ever did. For what it’s worth, I never meant to. You don’t deserve to feel like that, or to have people think like that about you. You’re a good guy. Good person. Good, good dude. I, uh, I have a wicked lot of respect for you.”

At some point, whatever vein of courage had gotten him to start talking ran dry and left him stumbling at the end. But Nursey already knew he was bad at words. 

“Well, thanks for coming by. I should get some sleep before morning practice." It was a stupid thing for him to say. It wasn’t even past sunset yet. He hadn’t eaten dinner. He was pretty sure neither of them had. But if the conversation continued, he was pretty sure he was going to say something even worse.

Luckily, Nursey just nodded in response, then held out the things he’d been holding. The things Dex had managed to overlook until that point. Dex’s things. His bag. His dive harness. His coat.

“Sure thing. But also, you forgot this by the Pond.”

His fingers were soft and warm as they brushed against Dex’s briefly while transferring the items back to his possession. 

“See you at practice, Poindexter.”

Dex was pretty sure Nursey closed the door on his way out. Dex was too busy reminding himself to breath to check.


	5. Chapter 5

Morning practice the next day was uneventful. It was a Saturday, so Dex didn’t have anything pressing to do afterward other than some homework, but that could be put off a bit for a quick dive. Mostly, he just laced up his boots feeling relieved that not only did it appear that Nursey really hadn’t reported him as a suspect to the cops, but that it didn’t look like he or Chowder had felt the need to tell the coaches that he was a selkie. 

Granted, that might have ended with a psych evaluation for all three of them, but it didn’t happen so they seemed to have not told. They also didn’t try to talk to him about it or act any different than normal in practice. Which was to say, Nursey kept doing something other than running the plays that were called and Dex kept having to adapt on the fly. 

Normalcy was reassuring.

So, of course, it ended as soon as he walked out of Faber. Nursey and Chowder must have been waiting for him because they fell in beside him immediately. 

“More microfiche today?”

“My parents are shipping my scuba gear up. I lied a little bit and told them that I was going to get extra credit for Dr. Hawkens’ bio class if I demonstrated some techniques.”

Nursey might have asked a question, but Chowder’s statement felt like the more pressing issue, so Dex turned to him.

“The caves are wicked dangerous.”

“Oh yeah. Cave diving is hella dangerous. Especially solo. But I’m PADI cave diving certified and you mentioned it’s hella difficult to tie off the guideline alone, so I figured you could use a pair of hands to help.” He held up his hands and smiled.

“No, it’s too dangerous. I’m looking for a literal monster. I don’t know what state I’ll find it in or what affect it could have on a human. It’s not safe for you to go down there with me.” 

He tried to plead with his eyes for Chowder to understand. He couldn’t put Chowder in that kind of danger. The whole reason he was doing this was to try to keep people out of danger.

It was Nursey who put a hand on his shoulder, gently, lightly. “Hey, Dexterous Maximus. We know it’s dangerous. That’s _why_ we’re going to help you.”

“I can’t ask you guys to put yourself at risk like that.”

“Chill. Good thing you didn’t ask, huh?”

This time it was Chowder who threw an arm around Dex’s shoulders. “If it’s too dangerous for you to even ask us, it’s too dangerous for you to do alone. Frog Team Three looks out for each other! To Founders.”

Dex allowed himself to be dragged across the quad by his best friends. His mind was still trying to process the change from thinking that they were going to tell the police he was a suspect in multiple murders to them being unwilling to let him face ancient and unknowable dangers alone.

“I was going to explore the caves more today.”

“Ch’yeah. But my gear won’t be here for another couple of days.”

“Yo, is it possible to research things that _aren’t_ on microfiche? I just feel like maybe there’s stuff on a better medium.”

Nursey was making movements that usually preceded him trying to turn around and walk backward (which usually preceded him falling down), so Dex threw his own arm around Nursey’s shoulders. 

“Ayuh. If you want, you can get a head start on the _microfilm_ archives.”

There was a brief pause.

“Hey Poindexter? Fuck you.”

Dex grinned. 

Maybe it would be okay. At least he had friends with him.

* * *

His friends weren’t trying to exclude him. Nursey knew that. In fact, they’d tried to make him feel included, as best they could. But SCUBA diving was dangerous, even before factoring in cave diving (which was apparently mad dangerous), and Chowder had been the first to bring it up so it probably wasn’t even just Dex being a worrier. 

Still, they’d disappeared under the waters of the Pond nearly half an hour before, leaving him alone on the shore with their stuff. Dex had mentioned that thirty minutes was the longest he could go without air in seal form, which meant he should be coming up for air soon. 

Nursey’s job was lookout. He couldn’t go in the water because he wasn’t scuba certified (and honestly wasn’t much of a swimmer). He couldn’t go on the water in a boat because the school had barred all boating activities on the Pond. He sat on the shore with a view of the area above the opening of the caves and he waited. 

If Dex or Chowder appeared and gave a pre-arranged signal, he called for help. If Dex didn’t appear before or around thirty minutes after diving, he called for help.

They’d tried to reassure him when he pointed out the obvious reasons this job wasn’t actually useful. If Dex could only hold his breath for thirty minutes and he didn’t reappear to breathe within thirty minutes, there was no time for help to arrive. They’d explained that there were things that could trap Dex or both of them and that Chowder might need to stay under water to share his air supply with Dex. Or they might have to use Chowder’s emergency pony bottle to last until help arrived, but not be able to get out. They’d even mentioned the possibility of air pockets that exist in some underwater cave systems. 

He didn’t feel very reassured. 

He was pretty sure that the lookout job was just to give him something to do so that he wouldn’t feel like he’d done nothing while his friends died. Still, he was watching. Eyes glued to the surface of the Pond, waiting for the water to be broken by the round shape of a seal head. 

Just before the thirty minute mark, Dex broke the surface, seal nose first, then the rest of his head. He stayed there for a few seconds, breathing, and gave Nursey the “proceeding as planned” signal (rolling onto his side and waving a flipper) before disappearing again. 

They’d agreed to keep the dives to about an hour each now that Chowder was helping Dex. There was more set up and take down time with Chowder’s gear, but with Chowder helping lay the guideline, they’d be able to search faster in the actual caves. That was the theory. Either way, Nursey had another thirty minutes of watching for someone to appear and give the “Emergency Now!” signal and then he had to wait for Dex to appear for a breath again around the thirty minute mark. Although, Dex would just be swimming in at that point, not just taking a breath. 

Keeping one eye on the surface of the water, Nursey pulled up a browser on his phone to book a trip for the winter break. He needed to go somewhere offering scuba certifications. 

If they were still doing this during the spring, at least he could be in the water to help. 

If they weren’t, they could all go diving together. 

He tried not to think about how many vacations he’d had in the past when he’d ignored the opportunity to get scuba certified. He couldn’t change the past. He could prepare for the future.

* * *

The day after the first time he dived with Chowder, Dex felt amazing. He’d known that exploring the caves and laying down a guideline would be easier in human form, but the gear necessary to dive as a human was prohibitively expensive. It wasn’t like his uncles had invested in hundreds or thousands of dollars of gear for human form diving when they could all just dive as seals. 

Still, it felt good. They’d managed to fully explore the branch that Dex had started on his own, reaching deadend spots where the openings were too narrow to fit through. That branch was marked with a line tag to indicate it wasn’t the one they needed and then they’d started on a new branch. He felt confident that it would only take a few more dives to explore the whole system and confirm once and for all if there was a monster there and what state it was in. 

Of course, that depended on exactly how extensive the cave system was. Just because one branch had been relatively short didn’t mean they all would be. It was possible for branches to extend well out of the area of the lake as underground rivers. But still, what had been a potential project of months by himself could now feasibly be completed in weeks.

“Hey, Chowder. Do you have time to dive again tomorrow?” He was looking at his notebook that he recorded his homework, practice, and work schedule in and he was pretty sure that he could squeeze in another dive. 

“Oh, um. Actually, I don’t think I can explain more than one tank fill per week showing up on my account.” Chowder was biting his lip and looking at Dex, except every few seconds his gaze darted to Nursey and back.

Dex barely noticed Chowder’s look, though. As soon as he’d given voice to the thought of diving again so soon, his stomach had twisted and he felt tense. Which made sense really. Going back into the caves meant putting Chowder in danger again. 

When he glanced at Nursey, he realized that Nursey’d also frozen in place. He didn’t appear tense, his fingers weren’t tightened on his book, there was no strain in his neck or arms. But he also wasn’t actually reading the book he was staring at.

“No, yeah. That makes sense. And we should probably keep it spread out and staggered anyway, to reduce the chance of being caught by officials. I just-.” He paused and let out a long breath while tilting his head side to side. “Just got caught up in that feeling of completing a task, I guess.”

The tension eased with the decision to stick to a weekly schedule and he nodded to himself. It was safer. It made sense. 

“And I still think we’ll find something in the archives in Founders if we keep looking. So, I’ll just research some more tomorrow.”

Nursey finally lowered his book and looked over at him. “Poindexter, I love microforms as much as the next person.” 

He was pretty sure that Nursey hated microforms and that Nursey knew he knew that he hated microforms and was therefore making a statement about the general consensus of microforms. Not a correct statement, but a statement.

Nursey didn’t pause, continuing directly from his statement indicating that Dex was weird for looking through so much microfiche. “But I’m pretty sure that we aren’t going to get any good information until we get into folklore. You said that there were oral histories and children’s stories about these monsters? Maybe I can match those to recorded folklore and get information from that angle.”

Dex stared at him and shifted slightly. “I mean, I only know the children’s story versions. Selkie culture is, different? There’s different markers for adulthood and a lot of the histories don’t get passed down to people until certain markers are met.”

Eyes and grin widening, Nursey looked nearly gleeful as he leaned in toward Dex. “Are you telling me that you aren’t considered an adult, Poindexter? Are you a _child_?”

Yeah, that had been a stupid thing to admit. Still, Dex held his gaze. “Selkies only consider people to be fully adult after marriage. You’re as much a child as I, according to selkie traditions.”

At that, both Nursey and Chowder pulled back and gave him odd looks. 

“Wait, do selkies believe in child marriage?”

He groaned and closed his eyes. It would be great if there was a class offered at Samwell that they could just take and figure this shit out on their own instead of making him answer everything. He knew he wasn’t good at explaining and they were ready to judge every difference.

“No. The names for the life stages are different, obviously, but basically there’s a stage that’s like human children, and a stage that’s like human teenagers, and then there’s a stage that’s like….wanderer? It doesn’t really translate cross culturally. It’s someone old enough to marry who hasn’t yet. Most selkies do some exploration, meet other selkie bobs, go to college like I am. It’s kind of expected to get away from your family bob for a few years to learn about other people and places.” He shrugged. “Plus, means that they’re more likely to find someone from a different bob to get married and settle down with. Then, after they get married, they have more responsibilities to the bob, including keeping the histories.”

“You keep saying Bob like we should know who this guy is.”

“No, a bob is like, a group of selkies? A troop of humans, a pod of whales, a herd of cattle, a bob of selkies.”

“Oh! Swawesome. That makes sense.”

“Does it, C?”

Dex rubbed at his forehead. “It’s a real thing. It’s even used by some people for regular seals because it kind of crossed paths.”

Nursey raised his eyebrows and picked up his phone. “Huh. Guess so. Are you sure selkies don’t have harems?”

“No.”

“No you-”

“No. Selkies do not have harems. Are we really doing this, Nurse?” He stared flatly. 

They’d been doing better. They’d been friendly. He’d been trying really hard to see things from Nursey’s perspective. But he needed to be met partway on this.

Nursey finally quirked a half smile. “That’s chill. So, tell me these fairy tales. Or selkie tales? Selkie tails.”

“A long time ago - or once upon a time if that’s how you prefer to start your fairy tales -,” Dex began.

> Titans of magic roamed the seas of the earth and in a sense, they ruled it. They could not be called evil, though we may think of them as such, they were as evil as we seem to the fish and shellfish that feed us. Those were early days for us, we selkies, and humans, and the rest of the human folk. But the earth was not new and these Titans had fallen to others and caused many others to fall before. Mass extinctions as ice and heat took turns stretching across the land.

Dex paused and shook his head. “Let me begin again.”

> Once upon a time, a young human girl approached a selkie village by the sea. She walked through the village and to the council, standing before them with a nautilus shell as a gift to hear her plea. And so they did. 
> 
> “The great beasts beneath the sea consume us, they have taken my sister and my brother and soon they would come for me. I have watched you for some time. I know that you are strong and have strong binding magic. I come to ask for your help, to stop the great sea beasts.”
> 
> The adults of the village looked at this girl and considered. Who was she to ask for their help? A human? Humans had trapped selkies before. 
> 
> Finally one spoke. “You would have us use our magic to protect you, a human child, in exchange for one nautilus shell?”
> 
> “No. The shell is for you to see me, to hear me. I am the offering to protect my people.”
> 
> The selkies exchanged looks because this was not their way. But it wasn’t unheard of among the humans to sacrifice one of their own. 
> 
> “Your people offer you in exchange for our aid?”
> 
> “No. I offer me. I have family yet alive, and know of many more children still. I will be yours, to use in your magic or bound to your will. In exchange for binding the great sea beasts so that the others will be safe.”
> 
> The selkies withdrew to discuss and decide. Some did not want to help. Many. Sometimes they are given names, their arguments described and enacted. Humans could be careless. Humans had harmed selkies in the past. Humans were young and foolish. They hadn’t helped any others survive the beasts, why now?
> 
> But one stepped forward and silenced the rest. “If the humans are all devoured, who will remain to feed the beasts? If we do not help them now, who will remain to help us?”
> 
> Another stepped up. “Humans are many things, but they are also good. This girl would volunteer herself to us to save countless others.”
> 
> “What will we do with a human girl anyway?”
> 
> “Make her kin. Make them kin.”
> 
> The selkies argued through the night, through until noon the next day, until finally they reached an agreement. 
> 
> They would help the girl. They would bind the great sea beast. 
> 
> The selkies began their preparation and they cast magic on the girl. Then, all the adults of the village went into the sea with the girl. They followed the beast to its home and there they fought. The beast lashed out. The girl gave the selkies her shell. The beast screamed, piercing minds. The girl gave the selkies their weapons. The beast thrashed against the binds that wrapped it, but they held tight and firm and slowly, the beast fell into a magical slumber, sealed away in its cave. 
> 
> The selkies and the girl returned to the village. 
> 
> “You have completed a complex magic with us. You are bound to us as kin. Stay if you will, but if you go, recognize us as kin and let us be welcome in your home.”

Dex shrugged. “And she married a selkie dude who gave up the seal to live with her as a human. They all lived happily ever after except not really because history. The end.”

Nursey and Chowder were both staring at him, but it was Nursey who spoke first. 

“You are really bad at telling fairytales.”

Dex turned back to his homework. This is what he got for trying to open up and share. “Yeah, well you try telling a fairytale from memory in a different language than you’ve ever heard it in.” 

It wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t a professional orator, and it wasn’t like human fairytales where a bunch of the versions had been written down over the years. Hell, it wasn’t like most humans could recite one of their fairytales from memory at a moment’s notice.

“Ch’yeah. You’re right. That would be mad difficult. Thank you for telling me the selkie tale. Are there any others?”

“Probably. Don’t remember them right now.”

“That’s chill. This is a place to start and if you remember the others, you know where to Skype me.” 

When Dex risked a glance up, Nursey was grinning at him.

He rolled his eyes and returned to his homework. If they were going to do more research the next day, he wanted to get as much done as possible.

* * *

The season opener, Parent’s Night, and Halloween were all the same Friday. Which made it really difficult to find time to get away from the team and work and homework and family members that showed up early so that they could dive that week. The season was only going to pick up, keeping them busier and busier, along with the approach of finals, meant that finding time to dedicate to a dive was only going to get more difficult. 

And the fact that students continued to go missing at a rate of about one a week, only to turn up drowned in the Pond meant they couldn’t afford to not make the time.

So, the week after the season started, the Frogs made their way to the secluded cove away from the normal public access to the Pond, carrying Chowder’s dive gear in their hockey bags. 

“Be careful.” 

Dex looked back at Nursey’s words. Chowder had already dived under the water and wouldn’t have heard them. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to him.”

Then he was a seal and under the water. As a seal, he could swim faster than Chowder, so it was easy to be in the lead as they approached the cave entrance. Technically, the person setting the guideline should be in front. Because if something happened to the person in the rear setting the line, requiring them to head to the surface immediately, and the person in front didn’t notice, they might swim on with no guide out. Chowder had been adamant. So, when they reached the spot where they’d turned back on the last dive and tied off the spool, Dex paused for Chowder to change it from a terminal tie off to a regular one and hook the spool back into Dex’s harness. Dex was going into danger first. Dex had been adamant. 

They’d only reached a point a bit less than ten meters into the fourth branch on the last dive. (The third branch hadn’t been much more than that total before it was unnavigable.) The fourth branch was boring and uneventful. A few meters wide and tall, it stretched out like a corridor as they swam along. Still, for safety, they stopped every so often to tie the guideline off and make sure it was secure for referencing the route back out of the cave. A guideline was only useful if it was installed properly.

Dex was starting to wonder if they were even still under the lake or if they’d found an underground river that fed into it. He was weighing the options on how far to explore down the length before trying a different branch, when he felt a change in the current. He stopped so that they could tie off the guideline and signaled in the beam of Chowder’s light that he was going to the surface for air so that Chowder would keep the spool after performing the tie off. 

It wasn’t _quite_ time to surface; he could have lasted another five or so minutes before needing to turn around and make his way back out and to the surface. But if there was something weird coming up, he wanted the full time to check it, not be immediately searching for a tie off location and swimming faster than was safe to get a breath.

At the surface he took several deep breaths as he oriented to locate Nursey on the shore, then he waved with a flipper, exhaled, and returned to the depths.

Chowder was where he left him, because that was protocol. Chowder wouldn’t explore on his own because they’d agreed to stick together and only explore together. He paused to have the spool rehooked to his harness, and then proceeded forward. 

A bit further along, he could see in the dim light that there was an opening. Some kind of fracture or space loomed ahead. He paused just before the opening. The floor of the cave fell away in front of him, and the sides were much wider, but the roof of the cave was only about a meter or two higher than in the corridor section. It was dark. Deep. Too far in any direction but up for the lights to reach. He swam into the fracture.

Despair. Pain. Anguish. Desperation. The world seemed to darken around him even as he flung himself into a roll to reverse direction. He knew many things in that darkness. The world and all he loved would end. Nothing he cared for would survive. Nothing he did mattered. He was alone and cold and always would be.

He was certain of one thing in that darkness.

He couldn’t let Chowder enter the fracture.


	6. Chapter 6

Nursey sat on his bed, still and quiet. There wasn’t anything he could do, so he sat there, hands in his lap. Waiting. 

It was ironic. He wasn’t even trying, but he probably looked the most chill he’d ever looked in his life. He didn’t feel chill at all.


	7. Chapter 7

The water was running in the bathroom. Nursey could hear it through the open door and the rhythmic sound was grounding, interrupted only by Chowder moving his gear under the flow as he cleaned and rinsed it.

They were in Nursey’s dorm because they could never be sure when Josh would be around (apparently, he’d started some kind of extra credit with Dr. Hawkens’s TA, Peyton, and his schedule varied) and Nursey’s dorm offered the largest, completely private, area to accommodate them while they dealt with things. 

Enough space to accommodate Dex, pacing back and forth. He could have sat in Nursey’s chair, or on Nursey’s couch. Nursey’d intentionally left them both available for him, whichever would be more comfortable. But Dex was pacing, even though Nursey could see the limp in his stride as he did.

They’d told him what happened, while they changed to return to campus. But he listened intently as Dex told the story again on the phone. Trying to make it make sense. Trying to make it be something other than his friends nearly dying. 

“Uncle Alex.” Then Dex made a short series of grunts and growls before continuing, “are real? From the stories? But they aren’t just children’s stories, they’re real.”

Dex turned around in front of Nursey’s desk. 

Nursey guessed from context that the grunts and growls had been something in whatever language selkies spoke. Probably something that loosely translated to Big Fuck Off Sea Monster.

“And they are evil. They don’t just eat people like people eat shellfish. They are evil.” There was a pause and Dex turned around in front of the couch. “How? Because there’s one in the lake on campus and it’s waking up.”

Dex completed two circuits from the couch to the desk and back before he spoke again. “Because I saw it! Because I felt it! Because it’s killing people! It is awake and the seal is barely holding it. It needs to be bound again.”

This time when Dex paused to let out a huff of air, he didn’t wait for a response before continuing. “And you should probably check on the others, too.”

Because of course there were other monsters. It couldn’t just be one Big Fuck Off Sea Monster that wanted to eat all of humanity. It had to be many Big Fuck Off Sea Monsters that wanted to eat all of humanity. 

Dex let his hand with the phone drop to his side and tilted his head back like he was staring at the ceiling. 

If Nursey had to guess, the call was over.

When Dex let his head drop back down, he turned to face the bathroom, but his voice was low when it came, clearly for Nursey alone. “I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to him.”

And then he was gone.

Before Nursey could find the words to say that he’d had two friends in that cave. In that danger.

And Dex had still been limping on his way out the door.

* * *

By the time Dex got to Founders on Tuesday, Nursey and Chowder had already been there for a couple of hours. Because he had a later class than them on Tuesdays, not because he was walking slow. The trainers had checked him over and he was fine. He was fine. Absolutely fine.

Before he’d managed to put down his bag and lower himself into his chair, Nursey had already pushed over a takeout container and a book.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a book, Dexy. Like microforms, except big and bound together and you don’t need a machine to read it.”

Dex nodded and opened the takeout container. “It just looks a lot like takeout from your favorite falafel place. I guess they’re trying new things with macroforms these days.”

Nursey gave a big dramatic sigh that Dex was pretty sure was just for show. “Sure, that’s the important thing here. It’s called leftovers. I ordered too much and the guy at the place threw in some extras that were going to time out or whatever the healthcode thing is for how long they can hold open food. The book is the important part. I found something.”

He flicked his eyes up at Nursey and then back to the food in front of him. It was a good claim. He could believe it. He didn’t, but he could. The problem with Nursey was that Nursey was a completely oblivious dumbass who never realized when people were flirting with him. The falafel guy had definitely been flirting with Nursey. 

It wasn’t worth telling Nursey that. He’d just accuse Dex of being jealous. And Dex wasn’t. His feelings for Nursey had nothing to do with anything. Nursey deserved to be happy, which probably required him to know when people were flirting with him so he could decide if he wanted to flirt back.

And Dex could probably talk to the council on winter break. 

But still - even if Dex did have time to eat before his last class, unlike Nursey and Chowder - there was no reason to let good food go to waste. However, Nursey was right, so he moved it to the side and closed it until after he looked at the book that Nursey had pushed over.

“What’cha got?”

Nursey leaned over the table to point at a spot on the open page. “I know it’s not exactly like the story you told us, but you said that there were other ones you couldn’t remember. _And_ it sounded like on the phone that there are a bunch of-” At this point, Nursey made a series of grunts and growls and groans and Dex felt his cheeks heat. “-around the world in the oceans and stuff. Which reminded me that you said Lake Baikal has one or more. So I expanded my folklore search worldwide, and I found this. Even if it’s not similar to a story you’ve heard, maybe different, uh, cultures, around the world include different parts in the children’s story versions that have ended up recorded as fairytales and stuff.”

Dex read through the indicated passage about a large serpent that crawled out of the sea, bringing storms along, to devour misbehaving children until finally it was subdued by being sung to sleep by a hero with a harp provided by the gods. It didn’t match any stories that he remembered. The singing and harp especially didn’t match up or bring up any memories. His bob didn’t have any instruments that could conceivably be called a harp by anyone who had ever seen a harp. Nor did they indicate that the monsters particularly preyed on misbehaving children. Plus, all the stories that he even vaguely recalled had the monsters defeated by using some kind of magic weapon.

But that didn’t mean it hadn’t been changed over time when it was recorded as a fairytale. He knew that human fairytales were often changed for marketability when they were recorded and recounted. Besides, it was completely possible that the humans had created their own stories about the defeat of the sea beasts without knowing exactly how the selkies had done it. They probably just made some shit up.

“Ayuh. Could be the same creatures. But, uh, Nurse? Please don’t ever try to say that in Selkie again.” He didn’t look up and he could still feel his face burning. 

It sounded like Nursey murmured something to himself about working on his pronunciation, but then he responded in a normal tone. “Chill. If this is the same as your great sea beasts, then it sounds like they might be connected to storms? Which would explain why it’s been mad rainy for the past two months.”

“Ohh! You think the storms are because of the creature? I thought it was just global warming.” Chowder finally looked up from his laptop, but apparently he’d been listening in the entire time.

“Ch’yeah. I mean, it makes sense, right?”

“It does! I wonder-.” Chowder trailed off and refocused on his laptop.

Dex didn’t get to find out _what_ Chowder wondered for another two days. Two days and a few hours. It was late on Thursday night when Chowder knocked on Dex’s door, his laptop in hand. 

“Dex! Look! It makes so much more sense now!”

When Dex looked at the screen it was filled with a OneNote Notebook with a lot of disjointed notes and scribbled numbers and lines. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be understanding now that “it made sense”, and he also wasn’t sure why Chowder hadn’t emailed him the file. “Uh, ok. Can you explain it to me?”

“Ch’yeah! So, like I said, I thought the storms were just climate change, right? Global warming is causing all kinds of weird weather patterns, so, hella big issue that needs to be addressed, but not related to the monster at hand. Right?” He didn’t pause for a response but Dex made a sound of understanding to indicate he was following the logic so far. “But then Nursey found that story about the monsters causing storms and we know there’s a monster in Lake Samwell. And you said probably there’s a monster in Lake Baikal which is big but mostly deep, so I used that as a cross reference but with the caveat that, you know, it’s possible that maybe there isn’t _actually_ a monster there. And then I used a manmade lake in Texas as a control because there’s no way an ancient monster could be in a lake that was made in the seventies, right?”

Dex nodded. Technically everything Chowder had said made sense, he just didn’t know what they all had to do with each other.

Luckily, Chowder continued, needing no input from him. “I pulled a bunch of data about when there were big storms around the lakes. Some of it is based on old letters and stuff before official weather records, and then there’s some that are pretty vague based on, like, geological records or the tree ring things? Like there’s a big ring then it was especially wet that year or whatever so they figure out from centuries old trees what the weather was like. And, you can see the results there!” He pointed at the OneNote again. “All the times that the unusual storms localized around Lake Samwell and Lake Baikal occurred without a corresponding storm in the area that’s now a lake in Texas, there was also a shift around that time in average global temperature.”

Dex stared at Chowder, blood rushing in his ears. “So, you’re saying-.”

“If the monsters wake up every so often and have to be rebound, it seems to correspond to global climate fluctuations. Which usually isn’t extremely drastic or extremely fast, but we’re currently in the middle of a hella big, hella steep climate change curve-.”

“Which means the beasts are probably being affected a lot more and waking up a lot quicker.”

“Exactly!”

Dex grabbed his phone and pressed the call button before remembering to take a breath. 

After the third time it rang through to voicemail, he tried a different uncle.

And then another.

And another.

And another.

“Fuck.”


	8. Chapter 8

When Nursey entered the roadie bus, Dex was already in the window seat with an open seat beside him. He dropped into his spot and bumped his shoulder into Dex’s as a greeting. He didn’t expect Dex to look up and he didn’t want to distract him more than that because Dex was frowning at his phone again.

He’d been doing that all morning, at least as much as Nursey’d seen, except for when the coaches or Jack were talking. But a few seconds after Nursey slid into the seat, he let his hand with the phone drop against his leg and let his head drop back against the bus seat. Nursey kept an eye on him as his chest expanded with several deep breaths and his shoulders slowly relaxed, lengthening the stretch of neck as his head remained tilted back. 

“Are your uncles still not answering?” Chowder was turned around in his seat to talk to them.

Nursey didn’t really think that was a useful question to ask. Obviously Dex’s uncles still weren’t answering or he’d be on the phone with them. Or at least he wouldn’t look so worried. 

Or maybe he’d look a different worried. It was hard to tell with Dex.

If Dex was annoyed by the uselessness of the question, he didn’t show it. He just continued looking worried as he shook his head silently, eyes still closed and head still back. 

“Hey, Dexily. It’s probably just that they’re out of cell range, right? They’ll return your call as soon as they have signal.”

Dex’s adams apple bobbed with a thick swallow before he opened his mouth, but not his eyes, to answer. “Ayuh. They don’t take their phones when they are, _at sea_. Which means they are at sea, in a dangerous - possibly life threatening - situation, without potentially vital information for their safety.” 

He finally lowered his head and opened his eyes to look at Nursey. “But thank you for trying to make me feel better.”

“Do you want me to tell Coach Murray that your ankle is acting up or something? We don’t want you to get hurt on the ice because you’re distracted.” 

“It’s ok. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? It’s chill that you’re worried about your family. You don’t have to repress it.”

Dex’s upper body bounced oddly in a way that it took a moment for Nursey to realize it was a single humourless laugh. “That’s my secret, Nurse. I’m always worried.”

Nursey glanced at Chowder who gave a small, sad nod and shrug. 

Dex pulled a book from where he’d apparently tucked it between his leg and the wall of the bus and then glanced at them both as he opened it. “Seriously. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Because of course Dex thought he had a monopoly on worry. 

Nursey rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone as Chowder turned back to sit correctly in his seat.

> Nursey: Mad bunch of [godzilla emoji]. [seal emoji][seal emoji] busy no matter what.  
> Nursey: need 2 find how to [lock emoji] Samwell [godzilla emoji].

> Chowder: How? Dex doesn’t know. He said only adult selkies know the full stories.

> Nursey: Folktales. Sum humans have been involved. Or married [seal emoji]s. Sum1 knew and wrote it down. Passed it down.

> Chowder: Ok! Why didn’t you put this in Frog chat? We should tell Dex.

> Nursey: [worried emoji] enuff. Tell when we have sumthing. Or when [seal emoji][phone emoji]

* * *

They were at the hotel when he got a response finally. A single text with an okay sign emoji and “call wed”. It was a lot more than most people would get in a text from his Uncle Alex on a good day, so he wasn’t surprised at the length. (Brevity, concision, economy.) He was just relieved to get a reply at all.

Nursey didn’t get out of his last class until almost four on Wednesdays and Chowder’s last class was half after, so Dex texted back that he’d call at five. 

It didn’t stop the worry, of course. Worry about why no one had answered. Worry about why Uncle Alex had texted instead of called. Worry about why he had to wait until Wednesday to call again. 

But it was better than the worry from not being able to reach them at all. So he managed the game and homework and practices and classes. Until Wednesday at four when he was waiting in the hall outside of Nursey’s dorm. 

Nursey wasn’t in his dorm and it was locked. Nursey should have been there. He was the one who’d suggested they all meet up in his room for the call because it provided a good amount of privacy and space. (Chowder’s suite was technically bigger, but it was shared and Josh’s schedule still seemed to be randomized by extra credit with Peyton, so they couldn’t be sure it would be private.) He hadn’t messaged to say that he was going to be late or that he had a change of plans. 

Dex checked his texts half a dozen times to make sure he hadn’t missed that. 

Even at Nursey’s “chillest” walking pace, his last class was ten minutes from FAD, tops. If he stopped to talk to a classmate or the professor, that would only add another five or ten minutes. Unless he needed to visit scheduled office hours. But then he would have texted to say, or why do it on a day he had plans?

By four thirty, Dex had pretty well decided that one of two things had happened. Nursey had forgotten about the scheduled call and was working on something else with someone else and Dex should just go down to his dorm. Or Nursey was injured, possibly dead, and Dex had wasted valuable time standing in a hall instead of finding him and getting help. 

He had nearly decided that he needed to text Nursey and check (after talking himself out of just going to look for him to see if he was bleeding on the side of the path somewhere - he could always do that if he didn’t get a response) when the elevator door opened and Nursey stepped into the hall. 

Stepped into the hall trying to balance three pizza boxes and two six packs of soda, along with his hipster messenger bag which had slipped from his shoulder to his elbow. 

Dex was impressed that he’d managed to keep the food and drinks balanced and hadn’t dropped them all yet, but he still hurried over to take the boxes and cans from Nursey’s hands. 

Nursey’d need to unlock his dorm anyway.

“Chill. Glad you’re here. It was gonna be mad difficult opening the door with all this stuff.”

“You could have texted, Nurse. I’ve been waiting. I was about to go look for you.”

Nursey turned his head to raise an eyebrow and smirk as he opened the dorm door. “Worried about me, Poindexter?”

There weren’t a lot of safe ways to answer that question. Not when it was delivered with that smirk. Because of course he had been. And Nursey knew - had to know - that Dex worried about him, all the time. Worried about everyone all the time, but even, especially, always Nursey. He just wasn’t supposed to.

So, he rolled his eyes and smirked back. “Worried you forgot about the call.”

“It’s only four forty, Poindexter. I figured we might have a research sesh after the call, so I picked up some brain food. C should be here soon.”

Dex decided not to mention what time he’d arrived outside of Nursey’s dorm, instead focusing on sliding the boxes onto the counter of Nursey’s kitchenette and transferring the soda to the fridge. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing.”

“Nurse.”

“Seriously. I bought all this for me. You’re on your own. Unless I get full before I finish it.” 

Nursey wasn’t looking at him; he’d dropped his bag on the couch and then disappeared around the corner to his closet and dresser, calling out his comments while changing into whatever he planned to lounge in. Which meant he didn’t see to argue it when Dex pulled out his wallet and thumbed through the few bills in it.

He glanced at the name on the boxes again, then pulled out a twenty with only a minor wince and shoved it into one of the front pockets of Nursey’s bag just before he finished changing.

Nursey was still pulling the henley down his chest and abs when he came back around the corner. Luckily, Chowder’s knock gave Dex an excuse (impetus, catalyst, incentive) to turn away.

Chowder and Nursey both immediately grabbed an entire pizza each along with a can of not-yet-cold-soda from the fridge and settled onto Nursey’s couch to eat. Which made sense. Both of them had Wednesday schedules that didn’t really leave time for lunch. Or at least not more than a quick snack around midday. 

Dex dropped into Nursey’s desk chair to watch the time tick by until it was five and he could press the call button. 

The call was answered before the second ring.

“Hello.”

“Hi, Uncle Alex.” Dex breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing his uncle on the other end of the line, sounding normal, was a major relief.

“Got your messages ‘bout the climate change. Could be, it makes sense. They are-. You were right. They’re waking up. And they’re more awake than they should be without us realizing. Thank you for giving us the heads up.” There was a pause and the sound of blunt fingernails scratching over stubble. “Everyone here’s fine. I know how you worry all the time.”

“Only when I need to.”

The answering snort was almost as reassuring as his uncle’s voice and the update on the rest of the bob, affectionate and routine. “Listen, Will, it might be hit and miss on reaching anyone from the bob for a while. We’re all right out straight, alerting other bobs, coordinating, finding volunteers. It’s-. Well, I read your messages. You seem to understand the danger. There aren’t as many bobs as there used to be. All of the [beasts] waking up at the same time. There aren’t enough Voices even if we had enough volunteers. We’re having to triage, prioritize. Some of these beasts. William, the damage potential-.”

Dex leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling for five seconds before squeezing his eyes shut. “I’m [betrothed].” 

He didn’t say the word. He used the selkie grunts and growls that translated to that. He managed to avoid looking at his friends while he said it.

“Ayuh. Got that message too.”

“So, I can help. Tell me what you need and I can help.”

“William.”

Dex sighed and let his shoulders fall. 

“I recall your messages also asking about nullifying the [betrothal]. You’re still a [Wanderer], you don’t get to put one flipper into the bob to get [adult] access, and keep the other out, especially when you’re planning to break the [betrothal]. [Betrothal] is about trusting someone else, being committed to them. Being [an adult] is about commitment to the bob. Without the commitment, you cannot be [an adult]. And you’ve said yourself that the commitment isn’t there.”

“What if it is? For me?”

* * *

Nursey was very carefully keeping his eyes mostly on his pizza. What was left of it. He hadn’t started on the last one. Of course. He’d never planned to. And he’d already found the twenty that Dex had shoved into his bag because he’d figured that out as well.

Contemplating his pizza, and how to get the bill back into Dex’s possession without him realizing it, was more appealing than looking at Dex, who’d once again let his head drop back against the computer chair. Well, it was a more productive use of his time anyway.

“I’m-” Dex had barely spoken on the phone call. There was a lot of quiet from his end, so presumably his uncle was carrying most of the conversation. But then Dex declared himself… something. Another mix of growls and grunts, but this time without enough context for Nursey to determine what it meant.

“So, I can help. Tell me what you need and I can help.”

At that, Nursey looked over at Dex, giving up any pretense of being focused on his food. Because that sounded like Dex asking for information he said he couldn’t have. 

Unless he was married.

Was Dex married?

Dex had said he wasn’t married.

Was Dex trying to convince his uncle to bend the rules?

It was a life or death situation, so maybe. Or maybe Dex had lied to them. 

But if Dex was lying to them, why ask them to be there when he made the call?

“What if it is? To me?”

Nursey’s gaze slid over to Chowder, who returned the look with a shrug. 

“Ayuh. Okay. I’ll keep an eye out down here and let you know if anything changes.”

It sounded like Dex was wrapping up the call, so Nursey turned his attention back to his pizza. 

“Well, they’re all safe. For now.”

Nursey looked up again at that, then passed over the last box of pizza so that Dex could start eating.

It probably said more than Nursey wanted to consider that Dex opened it and took a bite out of a slice without even trying to argue it again. He passed over a can of soda and they waited until Dex had finished his first slice and taken a long drink. Until Dex was ready to continue. 

“They’re working on rebinding the beasts, but there aren’t a lot of selkies that can do it, and there are a _wicked lot_ of beasts.” 

Something about the way he said it made Nursey think that the problem wasn’t just the number of beasts.

“Does that mean that they aren’t going to help us?” 

Chowder’s question wasn’t the one that Nursey had planned to ask, but it was a good question.

“They will. Eventually. The one in the Pond is just small, with a limited range. So it’ll be awhile.” He looked at them briefly, then down to his pizza. “I mean, my uncles care, but their first commitment is to each other and the bob.”

“Chill. That makes sense. They’ve got a big picture look. But they’re going to be ok. They know what they’re doing.”

Dex shook his head. “They said there’s not enough volunteers, not enough Voices. This is worldwide. All it takes is-.”

“Yo. They’ll be ok. And we can help. There’s like, components needed for the binding, we can get those ready for them. Ch’yeah?”

“I tried that. They won’t tell me.”

“But we can figure it out!” 

Nursey nodded agreement with Chowder. “We’ve already got mad leads, Dexy.”

“Leads?”

“We’ve been going through the folktales. There are hella folktales about this!”

“Ch’yeah. Some of them mention a song and don’t mention a weapon. And you said that they don’t have enough voices, so, it sounds like they have to sing. We can’t really help with that, I guess.” He trailed off because Dex was shaking his head.

“Voices isn’t singing. It’s-. It’s a musical instrument. That’s what we call it in English, but it’s really more like, um, four throats? It’s weird. It’s a musical instrument that’s played underwater. One that only the adults learn to play.”

“But you know about it?’

“Ayuh. I’ve repaired a few.”

Nursey glanced at Chowder and back to Dex, leaning forward slightly. “Do you think you could make one?”

“The parts wouldn’t be easy-.”

“Poindexter, assume for a minute that procuring parts won’t be an obstacle.”

“Oh. Yeah, I could make one. Pretty sure.”

“Chill. So, that’s one component. What else do we need?”

Dex shrugged. “Uncle Alex just said that they were having a hard time finding volunteers and Voices. All the adult selkies are working on it. They’ve told the other bobs around the world. Everyone’s trying to get these things resealed.”

Nursey blinked and clamped his mouth shut, only allowing a small snort out of his nose. Dex _had_ to be using that phrase intentionally. 

“If all the selkies are already helping, why would he need volunteers? Who else is there to volunteer?”

“The stories also all include a human going with the selkies. Or don’t mention the selkies at all and talk about a human going on the quest to defeat the beasts. Maybe that’s it? A human volunteer?”

“Oh!” Chowder turned and smiled at Nursey. “Like in Dex’s story. The girl who volunteered to connect herself to the bob and joined them in binding the beast!”

“Ch’yeah. Like that.”

“I guess, maybe. It makes sense.”

“Then that’s swawesome. We’ve already got a volunteer.”

Nursey turned to stare at Chowder but Dex beat him to responding.

“We do?”

“Ch’yeah! Me. Obviously.”

“I don’t-.”

“Too late. I volunteer as tribute.”

Chowder didn’t look like he was going to let himself lose the argument, grinning as he shoved an entire piece of pizza into his mouth. 

“Chill. So that’s the volunteers and Voices that your uncle mentioned. Which leaves the weapon and shell from your story. Except, like I said, some of the folktales we found didn’t mention weapons.”

“Nautiluses are wicked endangered.”

“O! Imf na a-”

“Chowder. We can’t understand you.” 

Chowder rolled his eyes and chewed quickly before swallowing thickly. “It’s not always a nautilus. It seems to be more localized. Like, it’s always a hella cool shell or something, but like, the specifics seem to match up with the story origin. I compared natural habitats.” He smiled at them both.

“So, we need a shell natural to the Pond?”

“A _pretty_ shell natural to the Pond.”

“The human always seems to have that to start, so I’ll find one for us.”

“Chill. That just leaves the weapon, right?” Nursey flung his empty pizza box toward the trash can. It didn’t make it.

“No.”

He frowned at Dex’s denial. He was pretty sure that it did just leave the weapon.

“The Voices is the weapon. Selkie magic is music based. Bobwide magics use a giant underwater instrument that’s fixed in place. It’s like a huge pipe organ. Takes several selkies to play it. To bind the monsters, a smaller, portable instrument would be needed. One that a human volunteer could carry and a selkie could play in the deeps.” 

Dex looked up and met Nursey’s eyes. He looked inexplicably sad.

“I’ve never heard the Voices played because it’s a weapon.”


	9. Chapter 9

Dex stared out of the window at the ceaseless rain. The prospect of going to another city, even just for one night, without the unnatural and unrelenting rain was nice. He felt bad about wishing for the respite. If he had found the beast sooner, if he had been able to help, if he knew how to rebind the beast, people would be safe and the rain would stop. 

Nursey’s shoulder knocking into him brought his attention back to the bus and his teammates. “‘Sup, Poindexter?”

“Just thinking that the facilities, maintenance, and grounds departments probably all deserve a raise. The quads have puddles, but they’re still passable. None of the buildings have had any major floods and they’ve been keeping the floors safe. Must be putting in a lot of hours. Only going to get worse when it starts changing to freezing rain and sleet.”

Nursey held his gaze for several long seconds before holding up his phone. “Just got confirmation on the last of the orders. Express shipping so all the parts for the Voices will be here Monday at the latest.”

“Great. That’s wicked fast. Thank you for ordering them. Just, uh, send me the invoices or receipts or whatever it is you get and I’ll pay you back.” He forced a smile. “It probably won’t be right away.” He ended with a “sorry” that was more mumble than word.

“No.”

He’d started to look away, but he looked back sharply. “What do you mean no? I-”

“I mean no. It’s chill, okay? This is stuff necessary to save the world. Or at least Samwell, right? Well I’m one of the idiots who lives there, so it’s to save me. I can pay for my own protection. Besides, I can’t do anything else to help stop this, but I can order the stuff so you have what you need to do it. Let me be useful.”

“That’s a wicked load of bullshit. You’re useful.” It was, seriously, the biggest load of bullshit he’d ever been exposed to and he’d visited a dairy farm on multiple occasions.

Nursey waved his hand like he was brushing away a fly. “You and C literally risked your lives in the caves and I can’t even go in the water. C is planning to risk his again, and I know you’re trying to get your uncle to let you help again, too. But even if you don’t, it’ll be your family. So, like, this is something I can do, alright? Chill. Just let me do this one thing.”

Dex waved Nursey’s hand wave away. “Let you do this one thing? Seriously, your research-”

“Hi guys!” 

“Yo! C! Why are you all muddy?”

Chowder grinned at them, then disappeared as he pulled his muddy hoodie off. “I ran into the most beautiful, smartest, and sweetest woman in the world, Caitlin Farmer.”

“She’s the one from your bio class?” Dex was pretty sure that was the name Chowder had mentioned for the object of his crush. 

“That doesn’t explain why you’re mad muddy, C.”

Chowder balled the hoodie up inside out, then pulled a nearly identical, but clean, Sharks hoodie out of his backpack and disappeared inside of it briefly. “Yes, from Dr. Hawkens’s class. I was running across the quad because I was afraid I was going to miss the bus and I slipped in a mud puddle and she broke my fall. Well, I fell on her. But she was okay! And thought it was funny. She said I can take her out for coffee as an apology when we get back. I would have taken her immediately, but we have a game and she said that was okay because she wanted to change out of her muddy clothes.”

Dex couldn’t see what he was doing after that, but based on the motion and the way he flipped a pair of Sharks track pants toward the aisle, he was changing out of his muddy jeans as well. He opened his mouth to ask how much Sharks gear Chowder had stashed in his backpack at all times, then closed it. He probably didn’t want to know.

* * *

The Thanksgiving break from classes and work gave Dex a lot of extra time after the parts arrived. He wasn’t sure how Nursey had been able to source all the parts in such a short period of time, but they’d all arrived on Monday as promised. And, more importantly, they’d all been correct. Even with practices and a game on Friday, he’d still managed to complete the Voices by midafternoon on Sunday. 

Which was good, because he still needed to finish his Comp Sci homework. And he should probably check his understanding against Chowder’s. Like usual. 

Josh let him into the suite, then raised his eyebrows with a shrug. “He’s been locked in his bedroom fighting with his girlfriend for awhile now. Good luck. I was actually on my way out.”

“Wrestling practice?” Dex didn’t actually know Josh that well, they didn’t spend a lot of time in Chowder’s suite because Josh’s presence meant it wasn’t as private as Nursey’s, but he still figured it didn’t hurt to remember what sport the guy played.

“Nah. Extra credit project with Dr. Hawkens’s TA. The cheese sticks in the fridge are mine if you guys eat here. Don’t care about the rest, but that brand’s hard to find here.”

“Got it.” Dex stood awkwardly as Josh gave him one last tight smile and left the suite. 

As soon as the door was shut, it was easy to hear Chowder’s voice through the closed bedroom door. 

“But we need it to stop the beast.” 

Dex frowned and knocked on Chowder’s door. A second later, the door opened to Chowder’s worried face. 

“Dex! I don’t know what to do.” 

Dex followed him into the room and shut the bedroom door again. Just in case. 

“We went for a walk today on our date. By the Pond-”

“In the rain?”

“Ch’yeah! Cait is swawesome and hella brave and she doesn’t care about a little rain and mud and we weren’t going in the water, not really, so it was perfectly safe.”

Dex held up his hands to indicate he wasn’t questioning Cait’s good qualities. 

So, we were walking around the wooded side of the Pond, you know where I mean, and we found this shell. And it’s perfect! No chips or punctures, both sides are there, the nacre is unblemished and it’s got a freshwater pearl in it. It’s perfect and pretty and I wouldn’t have found it if it wasn’t for Cait, who is also perfect and pretty. And I want to give it to her, or have some jewelry made from it, you know mother of pearl and pearl. And it would be perfect to commemorate the date because I asked her out! And she said yes! She’s my girlfriend now.”

“Josh mentioned that.”

“Oh.” The smile that had grown on Chowder’s face while talking about asking Cait out disappeared. “I should have told you and Nursey first, but I was just so happy, and then I was thinking about the shell and the pearl and how I wanted to have something made for her, but also, like, I think it fits what we need to stop the beast. But on the other hand, maybe something else would fit that? And I don’t really have another perfect, pretty pearl from our date that I could use to give to Cait. That’s a unique kind of thing. But like, we really need to stop the beast.” 

Dex looked at Cait who returned his look with raised eyebrows. “Ok. So, how much did he tell you?”

She shrugged and gestured. “He hasn’t told me anything. He’s just been arguing with himself for the past half hour.”

He glanced at Chowder, then back and sighed. He didn’t bother asking Chowder if he trusted Cait. He’d known Chowder long enough to realize that he didn’t get close to, honestly close to, people that he didn’t trust. He wouldn’t have asked Cait out, he wouldn’t be doing his best sunshine Gomez Addams impression in applying superlatives to her, if he didn’t trust her.

And if Chowder trusted her like that, then Dex trusted her, too. 

“Look, this is going to sound wicked weird, ok? And I can’t really _prove_ any of it because my coat’s back in my dorm.”

“Okay.” She drew out the word, but was still watching him with an open expression.

“Right. I’m a selkie, turn into a seal.” He paused and did a there-you-have-it gesture briefly because of course it was absurd to ask someone to believe that. But there was more, so he continued. “A long long time ago, eons ago, there were these sea monsters that were wicked bad for the world, especially humans. And selkies defeated them and sealed them away in their caves. There’s one under the Pond. That’s why people have been dying in it. That’s why it’s been raining for the past two, three, months. It’s waking up. And it needs to be resealed so that it doesn’t, or it could, you know, kill everyone at Samwell? Everyone in Samwell? Everyone in Massachusetts? I’m not sure how much damage it could do, but a bunch. My family is going to reseal it, but first they have to take care of the bigger monsters in the ocean. But supplies are a bottleneck, so we’ve been trying to get things ready for when they get here.”

“And you need a pearl.”

“We need a trinket. Or a shell. Probably of great sentimental value to the human who provides it. Who helps reseal the beast.” He shrugged. “In the story I know it was a nautilus shell. Nursey and Chowder found stories with other shells or items.”

He shook his head and turned away. It was stupid. It sounded incredibly stupid just laid out like that. No evidence, no proof, no verification. She was going to think they were lying. She was going to think-.

“Sweety?” 

Dex closed his eyes and waited for the words calling him a liar, or suggesting a trip to the Student Counseling Services, or something as Cait turned her attention to Chowder.

“I love that you want to keep a remembrance of today, but what’s more important to you? Stopping a monster that could kill us all? Or giving me one pretty thing?”

That was not what he was expecting. His eyes popped open and he stared at her.

“That’s the problem. You’re very important to me.”

Cait smiled and reached out her hand until Chowder took it and sat beside her on the bed. “There will be other pretty things.”

“But they won’t be from today.”

“Hmm. I guess you’ll just have to keep me around to remember today, then.”

“But I could find something else that would work.”

“Sweety.”

Chowder looked at Cait, then over at Dex. “That’s the thing isn’t it? It’s gotta be this because I don’t want it to be this. I don’t want to give it up. But I have to. To save Cait, and you, and Nursey, and the rest of the school and everybody. Right. Okay.”

Chowder stood up and walked over to his desk, then returned to stand in front of Dex, handing him an almost flawless alewife floater shell, with a pearl sitting inside. Whatever happened to the mussel that made it, there was no indication. No marks from a predator, nothing. 

“I give the selkies this shell and pearl, that you will hear my request to stop the beast under the Pond at Samwell.”

Dex smiled and pulled Chowder into a hug. “I don’t think you have to do a big ceremony about it. But thank you. I’ll, I’ll find something, some sea glass, or an oyster pearl or something. I’ll find something you can give Cait, ok?” 

“So, how are you guys planning to stop this thing?”

Dex released Chowder from the hug and turned to see Cait lounging on the bed and watching them. “I actually came over to check about homework, but we could bring you up to speed.”

“I’ll text Nursey. We can do both.”

* * *

Nursey ran his fingers over the old, worn leather bindings of the two books he’d just pulled from the shelves. Technically, they should have been in the rare books and manuscripts collection and unavailable for check out. Nineteenth century vanity press printing of the journals and collections of a guy who claimed to be an anthropologist and folklorist. They were printed in an attempt to get a following, like that of the Brothers Grimm, but they never picked up much interest. There were fewer than a dozen of the books known to exist, and a copy of both were in the Samwell English Department Library.

More specifically, in Nursey’s hands and about to be checked out by him because they were in the folklore collection, not the rare books collection. 

Of course, if they’d been in the rare books collection, he would have been able to look at them months ago because they wouldn’t have been checked out by someone else. But that was beside the point. The point was, he had the books now and he could check them out.

“Oh good. They’re still here.” 

Hands grabbed onto the books and tried to pull them from his grip, but Nursey didn’t let go.

“Excuse me? I’ve been waiting for these for a project and I had them first.”

Laurene glared up at him. “Actually, I had them first, until my project partner inadvertently returned them before we were done.” 

“Sorry, Laurene. That sucks. But you’ve had them for awhile and the semester’s almost over. I need them for my project. I’ll try to be quick.”

“How do you know my name?”

Nursey stared at her stunned. Not so stunned that he released or loosened his hold, so when she tried jerking the books out of his hands again, she didn’t even manage to make him lean. But still. “You sit next to me in Philosophy Studies on Mondays. Do you even pay attention in that class?”

“I have more important projects to worry about. Give me the books.” 

“Chill. Would love to. No can do.” He lifted the books up above his head and she was forced to let go.

Her eyes narrowed even more. “I’ll say you took them from me. I work here, they’ll believe me.”

It was absurd and Nursey almost laughed. “Yeah, chill, well my dad funds the endowment for this place, so, good luck on using your white tears. Ms. Carpenter? Head librarian? She called me specifically to let me know they were available because she knew I’d been waiting on them. See you at the final.”

He headed to the self checkout machines and at first he thought she was following him to continue the argument, but she peeled off to the bank of study tables off to the side where a couple of other people were sitting. 

Cait walked over as he was shoving the books into his bag along with the check out receipt. “So, we aren’t going to research here?”

“Nah. My dorm’s probably more comfy. Besides, I might have lied just a little bit to Laurene to get her to stop trying to manip me into letting her have the books.” He tilted his head toward the tables to indicate who he was talking about without pointing.

“Wait, is that Chowder’s suitemate, uh, what’s his name…”

Nursey turned and took the time to actually look at the other people at the table with Laurene. “Oh shit, yeah. That is Josh. Hope this doesn’t cause problems for C.”

“And that’s Peyton. Why are they in this library?”

“IDK. Laurene works here apparently. And they needed folklore books, since she tried to rip these from my hands.”

“No. I mean. Peyton is Dr. Hawkens’s TA. They’re a marine bio doctoral student.”

“Yo. That is weird. But, seriously, we need to go. I told Laurene that my dad endowed this place.”

They fell into step together and it wasn’t until they were at the doors and about to walk out into the rain that Cait tilted her head. “Wait, so that was a lie, your dad didn’t fund this library?”

“Not _this_ library. As if he’d fund the arts.”

* * *

Nursey looked up from the book he was studying. He and Cait had each taken one of the books to look through because every page had important information. The guy who wrote them, Lord something or other, had apparently _only_ studied selkie tales. Which was probably why they didn’t have as much of a following as the fairy tales recorded by the Grimms. 

Earlier he’d snapped a picture of a woodcut print that was in the book to Dex and received a text confirmation that it showed a selkie playing the Voices, complete with a weird musical notation. He’d read three different stories that confirmed the information that they’d found from other sources, but in more detail, like the guy had been there for it, or written down the experiences directly from someone who had. 

“Ok, but, isn’t this just a little too convenient? Books full of stories that confirm everything Dex has been saying, plus additional information about what the binding process requires and how selkies live?”

Cait didn’t look up from her book. “Derek, there’s an old saying about gift horses and mouths and looking at them. If it was really too good to be true, you’d have had these books at the start instead of piecing together the information over months.”

“Right. Chill.” 

He looked back at the story he’d been reading. It was about a selkie marriage. It was just a little disconcerting because it specifically mentioned that the first part of the selkie marriage ceremony was one of the most important, never skipped steps. When the selkies gave their coats to their intended, and then they each returned the coats. According to Lord What’s-his-pants, this was the part that actually bound the selkies in marriage and the rest of the ceremony was about joining them as adults to the bob and bringing them up to speed on bob history or whatever.

> The beasts are restless and the rains have started. Within the week the married selkies, including this new couple, will dive into the deeps to sing them back to sleep. I’ve volunteered to assist, but the selkies have demurred, selecting other volunteers for the ritual. I must admit that my curiosity regarding these beasts is piqued. I must find a way to learn more of them.

“Oh my god.”

Nursey looked up slowly. Dex had said that only married selkies, selkies that had made a commitment to another selkie and to the bob, were considered adults. Probably this passage just meant the adult selkies, the ones that knew how to play the Voices and knew the rituals, were the ones to go. It was just weird that Lord Who’s-It used the term married instead of adult. 

But also, Cait sounded like she was concerned about her book, so it was probably more important.

"Ok, none of these are about fully awake monsters like Dex's selkie tale, so they probably act differently when awake than asleep. But in a bunch of these the human asking for help mentions their town or village or whatever being overwhelmed, people going out into the water and drowning, friends and family not sleeping because of dark dreams."

He raised an eyebrow at that. Because, seriously, rude. "What, these evil assholes weaponize people's mental illnesses?"

With a brief wave of hand and shake of head, she brushed aside that interpretation. "No, it sounds more like they manipulate people through their dreams. You know, mess with their perception so that they go into the water to drown and the monsters can feed on the negative emotions that they stirred up."

“That’s still mad unchill.”

“Yeah, but that's not all, it looks like there have been cults at various times that wanted to reawaken the beasts? People that the monsters influenced into helping get more sacrifices.”

“Snackrifices.” It was a reflex to make a joke. Jokes were Chill. If he was joking, he couldn’t be worried or scared.

“Lord Durchville-Exeter apparently was looking to join one of these cults? Because he wanted to see the monsters. And-. Okay, I don’t really understand how all this works, I'd have to study it more. but it sounds like if the monster gets a steady stream of snackrifices, it could wake up eventually-"

“It’s okay. The selkies will reseal it before then.” It had to be okay. They just needed to wait until Dex’s uncles and the other selkies could arrive.

"-Or the followers can do a ritual that will allow a mass sacrifice if there's enough people with enough like, ambient negative emotions in the area, and the ritual and feast could completely undo the binding and allow it to wake up."

"Chill. That's. That's bad. Shit. I'd have to look at C's data to be sure, but I don't think there have been steady snackrifices anywhere else. The selkies think that the big ones are the threat because they think Pond Monster is only as awake as they are."

Cait finally looked up and met his eyes. “But it’s much more awake. And apparently, it has people helping it.”

“Laurene. It has to be Laurene, right? She had the books the whole time. She knows how to do the rituals. She was desperate to keep them away from me.”

“And Josh and Peyton. That’s why they were all in the English Department Library. And. Hell, Derek. Finals are next week and Winter Screw is _tonight_. Everyone’s getting paired up with random dates.”

Which was a problem he could actually focus on. A blind date was not actually the end of the world. He could deal with a blind date. “Shit. Holster picked a date for me. I should probably-.”

“Derek! Everyone is going to be super stressed today and tonight. The beast in the Pond has been feeding slowly for months and getting stronger. If they do the ritual tonight, if Pond Monster feasts on all those negative emotions and lives, it could get enough to fully break free!"

**_”Fuck.”_ **


	10. Chapter 10

Dex was staring at him. He wasn’t saying anything, just staring at him. 

Finally, Dex turned to Chowder. “Are your tanks filled? I don’t-. I don’t know the magic to take you underwater without your gear.”

“Ch’yeah. Everything’s ready and in the bags. I’ll get them.” Chowder took off for the stairs, apparently unwilling to wait for the elevator. 

“All the tales we’ve found agree, it’s supposed to be done by married selkies.”

Dex didn’t look at him again, just started moving around his dorm, gathering items. “Ayuh. I’m going to do it.”

“You married, Poindexter?” 

He did not think about the story of the selkie wedding. He did not think about Dex tossing his coat over to Nursey that day at the Pond. He did not think about returning it to Dex later that afternoon. It wasn’t a marriage. Dex would have said if they were married. Dex would have said something.

“Close enough. Betrothed. Besides, I’m what we have.” The set of Dex’s jaw made it final. Dex would bind the monster, or die trying, apparently.

They didn’t speak again until they were on the banks of the Pond. They didn’t bother going all the way around to the very secluded cove that they’d used for previous diving excursions. The rain was sheeting down and icy cold. It was dark. And everyone was either at the dance or on their way to it. Hopefully.

Chowder changed quickly. Dex stripped more slowly. The shell and pearl were in a pouch on Chowder’s gear and the Voices had been hooked to his vest as well.

It looked awkward and uncomfortable when Cait wrapped Chowder in a hug. “Be safe, sweetie bear.” 

Cait’s words were ripped away by the wind and Nursey wasn’t even sure he’d heard them correctly, even though they were only a few feet away.

“I will. But, you too. Be careful with those people. Who knows what they’re capable of. I can’t believe Josh-.”

Nursey tuned them out and grabbed Dex’s hand in a firm clasp, pulling him close to yell in his ear over the sound of the storm. “Hey, be careful down there. For both of you.”

Dex looked at him silently again for a long moment before nodding. “I’ll stop it. Take care of yourself, Nurse.”

Then Dex released his hand and walked into the water, changing into a seal as he dove under the churning surface.

Chowder followed, leaving him alone in the bare shelter provided by the trees. 

He didn’t allow himself to stare at the water for too long. Dex and Chowder would get their part done. They had to. They’d come back safe. They had to.

But in the meantime, he and Cait needed to buy them some time.

“Yo. Where would the ritual be?”

“Here!”

Nursey looked around in the darkness, but didn’t see anything that looked like a ritual, or other people at all.

Cait leaned up close to his ear. “Somewhere around the Pond. Close to the monster. Somewhere significant?”

Somewhere significant. Where would be significant to an evil people eating monster and the cult that wanted to wake it up?

Only one place sprung to mind. “What about the bonfire?”

“What?”

“The bonfire. Chaddius was at a bonfire before he died. The first victim.”

* * *

Normally, the water was a calm place for Dex. It was his home. His senses were designed to function best under the water.

As he and Chowder swam under the Pond to face the beast in the caves, nothing was calm about the water. He simultaneously felt overexposed and raw and like all of his senses were operating through a thick layer of wool. 

There were biting pinpricks of pain all over his skin, and it took him far too long to realize they were magic. They worsened as they moved through the cave along the route to the beast’s fracture.

* * *

The raindrops were huge and they were freezing as they fell, so they hit Nursey like hail as he and Cait ran around the campus side of the Pond toward the north shore. There were a lot more people hanging out on Lake Quad than made sense with the weather, but none of them were in the Pond (yet), so he decided they were an issue to worry about later. If they stopped this thing, maybe they could worry about them never.

They jumped over and dodged the barricades that campus PD had set up, and pushed through the trees and shrubs on the north side of the Pond until they came to the clearing on the Beach where the bonfire had been held. 

And face to face with Josh.

* * *

Just before exiting the corridor before the fracture, he paused. If he’d been in human form, if he’d been above water in the air, he’d have taken a deep breath. That wasn’t really an option. But he still took a second to steady himself. (Calm, resolute, poised.) 

He didn’t know enough of what he was doing. He wasn’t an adult in the eyes of his people. He’d never been taught this magic. But if he failed, Chowder would die beside him. Probably. And the beast would awaken. And Nursey would die. And Cait. And everyone else. So, he couldn’t fail. It was as simple as that. 

He just had to ignore the biting pain all over his body and the deep thrumming sound of blood that wasn’t his own.

* * *

They stared at each other across the short distance, while rain dripped off their faces and Josh’s poncho. Then the wind died. 

Which would have felt a lot more reassuring except that the water in the Pond started churning with huge waves.

“Hey Cait, Derek. Are you guys here for extra credit, too? Where’s Chris?”

* * *

He turned to Chowder and Chowder pulled out the shell carefully. Dex positioned himself so that he was swimming upside down and Chowder placed the shell on his belly, between his flippers. 

He moved into the fracture. 

He called on magic he’d never used before. He knew that it existed. He knew that other selkies before him had used it. He knew that it would be there, and it was.

It burned through his veins like fire.

It shocked through his veins like lightning.

It froze his veins with ice shards.

* * *

“Extra credit? Are you seriously chill with killing people and dying for a few extra points?”

“No one’s going to die, Derek.”

“People have been dying, Josh. This thing eats people. You guys are feeding it people right now to try to wake it up so it can eat more people.” Cait continued the argument when Nursey was too stunned to respond.

“C and Dex are depending on us. If he’s with these guys, so be it.”

* * *

The beast screamed in his mind as he bound it to the shell. 

A shadowy limb, a tentacle or leg, emerged from the darkness, striking at him and he rolled away, sending the shell sinking into the abyss. 

In the space after the swipe, Dex turned back to Chowder who passed over the Voices, clipping it to his dive harness.

* * *

Nursey didn’t wait for Cait’s response, just broke away running across the muddy ground.

It wasn’t very far, a few meters, but he was still lucky. Only a couple of weeks before Chowder had slipped while running and taken out Cait. Then again, if Nursey had slipped, it would still work if he could take out one of the people still chanting in the little circle. Square? Rectangle? Diamond? There were four total, was that enough for a circle? Regardless, he aimed himself at the figure that looked like they were probably in charge, with a deep hood pulled low over their face, and pelted across the slick ground.

He did slip.

* * *

Playing the instrument as a seal was difficult. He’d only had the past week to practice, and that had been as a human, with no direction, and no real anticipation of needing to play the spell. He pushed on the proscribed points of the bag, pushing the trapped air through the false throats to generate the tones. He followed the notes from the woodcut that Nursey had texted him. It was a standard repeating pattern. 

Three notes in and he had to dodge to the left. Two notes later, he dodged to the right, too slow. Whatever appendage the beast swung at him was solid, physical, real, and it _hurt_. But he was alive and he was still playing.

* * *

Nursey did slip. But he was close enough that his momentum carried him into the person and he pulled them down with him. Grappling at them as he went down, he managed to pull the hood back while trying to get his arms around them in a way that would pin their arms.

“Dr. Hawkens?”

Cait’s question sounded from close enough that she must have followed his charge in. Unfortunately, it was followed almost immediately by the sound of wet skin contacting with wet skin in an awkward thud and a sharp exhalation that sounded like it also came from Cait.

* * *

The biting pinpricks of pain started to subside. The swipes from the beast lessened.

And Dex got tired and let his guard slip.

* * *

“You’re stopping scientific advancement!”

“I’m stopping you from killing my boyfriend!”

“You can’t stop us. There aren’t any married selkies in Samwell!”

“No one told me people were going to get hurt! Chris is a good suitemate!”

* * *

He thought he was winning. He thought it was nearly over.

Until he thought he would never know peace again. Pain flowed through him and over him like the water of the lake. His skin pulled away from his self, his core. He thought, briefly, in the flickers of thought left to him, that his coat was gone, that he was human. That his _seal_ was gone.

* * *

Nursey really hoped that meant Josh was changing sides, but he couldn’t spare a lot of attention to check because Dr. Hawkens was wiry, stronger than he looked, covered in slick vinyl and mud, and trying to headbutt Nursey in the face. 

“Let me go, you muscle bound oaf!”

It definitely sounded like it. And more importantly, while Nursey was struggling to keep Dr. Hawkens’s limbs contained and the sound of struggle continued from somewhere to the side and behind him, no one was chanting anymore. 

He really hoped that meant that they weren’t helping the beast any more. 

He really hoped they’d stopped them soon enough.

* * *

Nursey.

He couldn’t stop, or Nursey and Chowder would die. 

He couldn’t stop. 

He couldn’t.

He had to finish the rhythm.

He had to finish.

He drifted.

In the darkness.

He drifted.

* * *

It felt like hours and it felt like seconds. Wrestling in the freezing rain, caked in freezing mud, time passed. 

Some amount of time.

Enough time. 

Dr. Hawkens stopped fighting back, suddenly and without warning. 

Nursey was pretty sure it was a trick, but after a few seconds, there was still no response and he appeared unconscious. 

He carefully turned to see that Cait was trying to catch her breath, with Peyton wrapped in a complicated position, part on top of her and part under her. Apparently their wrestling had been a lot more vigorous. 

Josh was still holding Laurene in some kind of wrestling hold, though both of them were limp with lack of consciousness.

Nursey pushed his way to his feet, slowly so he didn’t slip and fall again, then carefully helped Cait get Peyton pushed over so that she could stand as well.

“Derek. The Pond.”

Nursey turned to look. 

It took him a moment to get a breath in. And let it out. And another in.

The Pond was as still as glass. Not even broken by rain. 

“It’s not raining anymore either.”

“No.”

“Any chance that’s a good sign?”

“It’s gotta be, right?”

Nursey looked around. The cult passing out seemed like a good sign. But on the other hand. “Maybe the beast is awake and it’s just calmly slithering up for a light breakfast snackrifice.”

“Only if you think that Will and Chris failed.”

“Good sign, then.” 

The alternative couldn’t be true. He wouldn’t let it.

“They’ll come up on the south side, won’t they?”

“Ch’yeah. They don’t know where we went. Let’s, let’s go back over there. Where their clothes are.”

Cait didn’t move though. Instead she was looking at Josh. “We shouldn’t just leave them here, right? They should be checked out by medics.”

He sighed. He didn’t want to spend the time dealing with them. Especially since there were four of them and only two of him and Cait. But, Josh _had_ helped stop the ritual. And apparently the beast _could_ influence people through their dreams. 

“First priority is Dex and C, but it sounded like it takes a little bit to get in and out of the caves. So, sure. Second priority Josh because I don’t think he realized what was happening and he helped us. Last priority, the people who wanted to snackrifice us to a cut rate godzilla.”

“Josh is going to be heavy.” 

It was true. He could probably carry Josh, but he wasn’t sure how easily or how far. 

“Let’s carry him over together and come back for the rest. I can probably carry Laurene and drag Peyton if you can get Dr. Hawkens.”

“Or vice versa. Either way.”

It only took a short while, less than fifteen minutes, to get all four of them back on the campus side of the Pond. A few minutes more than he would have preferred to spend on them.

“Trying to snackrifice us to an off brand cthulhu, punk ass.”

Once they were deposited, Nursey rummaged in Josh’s pockets until he found a phone, then dialed emergency services.

“Yes, hello. I was just walking on Lake Quad and I saw some people passed out by the Lake Samwell. Yes, I’m not sure, perhaps they’d been drinking? I didn’t recognize them, and with the barricades and the storm, I didn’t want to get any closer. Perhaps send an ambulance to check on them, won’t you? With medics of course. Ha ha. Just a good citizen doing a good deed.” He disconnected the call.

Cait was staring at him with her forehead wrinkled. “What was that?”

“I don’t want them to track it back to me, so I disguised my voice.” He returned the phone then gestured for them to continue.

* * *

When a head finally broke the surface of the Pond, it wasn’t the seal head that Nursey was expecting. It was a human head. Covered in a drysuit hood.

Nursey swallowed hard. C almost never surfaced first because he always had spare gas in his tanks when Dex needed to breathe again. The relief at seeing Chowder was followed so quickly by a spike in worry about Dex that he stopped breathing.

Sixteen long seconds later, another head broke the surface and Nursey gasped in a sharp breath.

It was another human form, no hood. It was too dark to see from that distance, but Nursey was sure that the hair plastered to the forehead was ginger. It had to be Dex. And Chowder was obviously helping him swim. Or towing him in. 

“He isn’t a seal. Why isn’t he a seal? He doesn’t have any blubber as a human.”

He suspected that C and Dex assumed that he hadn’t paid attention when they’d talked about the logistics of the dives. But he had. He’d paid a lot of attention. He knew that Chowder used a drysuit, not a wetsuit. He knew that it was because cave diving, especially in the winter in Massachusetts, meant diving in cold water that leached heat from the body. He couldn’t think of any reason that Dex would have changed from a seal.

Nursey grabbed one of the giant towels that they’d brought and Dex’s winter jacket and ran out into the water to meet them as soon as Chowder started trying to stand up and get Dex up. 

Dex was moving. Not well, not with any coordination, not in a way that looked like anything he’d seen Dex do before even after hard games and practices. But he was moving. Nursey latched onto that thought as he splashed through the water.

Dex was on his feet by the time Nursey got there - unsteady but standing - so Nursey quickly wiped him down with the towel as much as he could before wrapping it around him, and then following with the jacket. 

He ended up taking most of Dex’s weight from Chowder. Chowder was winded and Cait was there to reassure herself of his safety and they deserved that. So, Nursey took Dex’s weight and helped get him to shore.

“I was worried you weren’t going to come back.” 

He could feel Dex trying to turn and look at him, then deciding that it wasn’t going to happen and just focusing on walking through the shallows. “Of course I was gonna come back.”

“He almost didn’t. My pony tank. He-.” 

Nursey’s hand spasmed where it was holding onto Dex. He was pretty sure Chowder didn’t realize that he could hear the stream of murmurs that he was whispering to Cait. He was pretty sure that Chowder wouldn’t have said them if he’d known that he could hear. 

“I want to take you out, Poindexter. I want to date you. I want-.” He wanted to kiss him. 

That was the thing. He wanted to hold him and kiss him and reassure himself that Dex was really alive and there. Like Cait was doing to Chowder. And he wanted to date him and have him not be in danger like that again. Or at least be by his side next time.

But Dex was betrothed. He’d said, earlier that night. It’s why he’d been able to go down and come back, apparently. Dex was spoken for.

“Ayuh. Ok. Not tonight. I just want to sleep tonight. Just need to sleep this off. Then yeah. I’m down for a date with my husband.”

Nursey almost wasn’t quick enough to catch him before he collapsed unconscious on the shore.


	11. Chapter 11

Pain.

The first thing that Dex was aware of when he woke up was pain. 

All encompassing pain. Every square millimeter of his skin was in pain. And he was pretty sure it hurt deeper than his skin too.

But it was, ultimately, bearable.

He’d had a few second degree sunburns in his life. Burns that blistered and scarred. In some ways, this reminded him of those times. Except he didn’t feel like he was radiating heat. And it didn’t hurt to have his skin touched.

That was the second thing that Dex was aware of when he woke up. He was being touched. Specifically, there was a warm chest against his back and a strong, warm arm laying over his side. Whoever it was wasn’t doing anything, so there didn’t seem to be cause for immediate concern. But he should probably figure out who it was.

It took effort to open his eyes, but he managed it. 

He was not expecting to see Nursey’s suite. But there he was. They were. He assumed it was Nursey cuddling him. Moving to verify seemed like too much effort. And, well, it was nice. 

It was nice to be lying on Nursey’s bed. 

It was nice to be wrapped in Nursey’s arms. 

It was nice to pretend for just a little bit that there wasn’t a perfectly rational and platonic reason for those things. 

He would wake up eventually, and Dex would learn the perfectly rational and platonic reasons soon enough as it was taken away from him. For just a little bit, he could just enjoy being there. 

It almost made up for the pain. 

Unfortunately, the reckoning came sooner than Dex wanted. Nursey stirred, waking, moving, and-

Pulled Dex closer while nuzzling his nose against the back of Dex’s neck.

“G’Morning.”

“How did I get here?”

It wasn’t intentional. He just had to remind himself of that. Nursey was operating on instinct. It wasn’t intentional. He couldn’t let himself believe it was anything other than rational and platonic.

“You passed out after sealing the monster.” Nursey’s sleepy snicker huffed air against Dex’s neck. “So, I carried you here.”

“Oh, okay.” 

At least Nursey seemed to be aware of the fact that it was Dex he was cuddling. So at least the, as anticipated, perfectly rational and platonic reasons for cuddling Dex in his bed also included consent. Dex had passed out. Chowder was probably also dealing with the aftermath of the binding, and Cait would have made sure he got someplace safe. Nursey had just been making sure Dex was safe after he passed out. Nursey’s dorm was more comfortable than Dex’s, and it was probably just easier to bring Dex to his room than to try to drop Dex off.

Nursey moved again, tangling a leg with Dex’s. When he spoke, his lips were brushing the skin of Dex’s neck and Dex nearly missed the words.

“Your parents or mine first?”

Not that hearing the words made them make any sense.

“What?” 

“Chill. Figured we should meet each other’s parents, right? Split the break or something. So, do you want to visit your parents first? Or mine? It’ll probably be easier to get rings somewhere around my parents’ place, but it’s chill. Whenever you want.”

Nothing Nursey was saying was making sense anymore.

“Rings?”

“Ch’yeah. Married people wear rings, Poindexter.”

Shit. Nursey must have read about parts of the selkie customs while researching the folklore and figured it out. And now he was chirping Dex over it.

“It’s just an old selkie tradition. Just because you picked up my coat and gave it back to me doesn’t have to mean anything. Doesn’t mean anything in the human world.”

“Mmm. That’s why we need rings. For the humanly legally marrieds.” He was quiet for a second, his breath slow and soft against Dex’s neck and back. “Think we can get the ceremony in over break? I booked a vacation and SCUBA classes, so like, just add you in and boom, honeymoon.”

Dex stared at the half open closet door across from Nursey’s bed. His selkie coat was hanging inside. 

It sounded, well, it sounded like Nursey was serious. Like maybe Nursey didn’t want to break off the betrothal. Like maybe he wanted to complete the ceremony.

It didn’t make any sense at all.

“Maybe we should try going on a date first?”

“Mmhmm. You already agreed to that. I’m planning for after next week.”

He couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped. “Sure. First date is dinner, second date is wedding. That makes perfect sense.”

Nursey’s hand moved from his waist, feeling blindly until it covered most of Dex’s face. “Will? Shut up and cuddle.”

* * *

Nursey stood beside Chowder and Cait and looked at the Pond. Less than 24 hours since they’d realized they didn’t have time to wait for the rest of the selkies to get their message and had run headlong into danger to try to stop a mythic beast from devouring the school. And succeeded. 

The Pond looked peaceful. It didn’t look like it housed a monster. Looks could be deceiving.

A few yards away, a group of people were gathered that really didn’t belong at Samwell. Well, they belonged as much as anyone, really. But somehow, for all they were dressed like Dex, there was something about them that instantly gave the feeling that this place wasn’t for them. Too far inland, probably. 

“Selkie Brigade-”

“Seal Squad.”

Nursey continued as if Chowder’s interruption hadn’t happened. It was pure disrespect to interrupt with a better name for the group. “-finally arrived. Chill that the town would have been munched for less than a day before they showed up to stop the beast from snackrificing the rest of the state.”

“They must have gotten here as fast as they could. And now they can make sure that the beast is hella bound.”

Nursey didn’t respond. He found it hard to give them the benefit of the doubt when them not being there last night was directly responsible for Dex still moving in obvious pain as he walked back over to their smaller group. 

As soon as he reached them, Nursey stepped in next to him and wrapped an arm around his waist.

Dex gave him a tiny smile before indicating another of the selkies that had followed him over. The man was in his thirties or forties if Nursey had to guess. He wasn’t really good at guessing that kind of thing, but the man’s hair and beard had a few grey strands mixed in. 

“Uncle Alex, Derek Nurse, Chris Chow, Caitlin Farmer. They all helped, in some way. I trust them.”

Chowder spoke up before Nursey could respond. “I volunteered to help in the cave. If you need to do it again or anything, I still volunteer.”

“Or I will.”

“Or me. C and Dex already risked themselves down there. I can go.” Somehow Nursey managed to be the last to volunteer, but damned if he was going to let Chowder risk his life again.

“Appreciated, not necessary. The-” Alex stopped and took a deep breath. “Extremely foolish and dangerous ritual that you performed seems to be holding well. As long as no other factions of the cult spring up to try to undo it, it should hold for quite some time. Even then, it will hamper any attempts to raise the beast.” 

He paused again before continuing in a slightly less chiding tone. “We will have to deal with the cultists who did this, still, once they are released from the hospital.”

“Josh is a hella good guy! He isn’t a threat.”

“Ch’yeah, he didn’t know they were killing people. When we told him, he was chill and helped us stop the others.”

“Also, the books that we found the information in mentioned the beasts influencing people via their dreams and manipulating them. Can you be sure they all knew the effect their actions were having?”

Alex held up a hand. “We can determine which were influenced in what ways. The results may not be punitive. We have, methods, to bind memories of the beasts. Our primary concern is to prevent a recurrence. As for the books you found-”

“No. Without them, we wouldn’t have stopped the beast.”

“Without them, the cult wouldn’t have known how to raise the beast. And my nephew wouldn’t have put himself in danger.” Alex’s voice was brittle, with just a slight waver.

Nursey paused and took a deep breath. Then another for good measure. “If you had told Dex about the danger instead of keeping things secret, he would have at least been making an informed decision. But do you really think that he wouldn’t have risked himself anyway?”

“Nurse.” The word was barely a breath from Dex. 

It could have meant anything. An admonishment to not argue with his uncle. An assurance that he was okay - for some definitions of the word - and it was a moot point anyway. An acknowledgement of Nursey understanding that Dex would always risk himself to save others. A simple reassurance that he was there and they were together. 

A request to enter the conversation.

Nursey yielded.

“You used your betrothal anyway, even though you were warned.”

“Ayuh.” Dex’s voice was steady

“Still planning to break it?”

At that Nursey blinked. He hadn’t considered that a possibility. Dex hadn’t said it was.

Dex pulled him closer and Nursey shifted until he was behind Dex, wrapping his arms fully around his waist and tucking his chin over Dex’s shoulder.

“Nah. Apparently it’s mutual.”

It was. It was on his side. So he nodded.

“Ayuh. If it hadn’t been, you wouldn’t have survived when the beast attempted to flay your coat from you. There are reasons why we do things the way we do. There are reasons it’s married selkies who face the beasts.” He paused and took a breath of his own. “But I am happy for you. Truly.”

Nursey was pretty sure, almost positive, that no one heard him mutter “informed consent.”

He made it a point to speak clearly for his next statement. “We can finish the process over break if you want. He can be a fully married selkie then.”

Alex met Nursey’s gaze and smiled, with teeth that were far sharper than a human’s. “There are things you both must know about the union of a human and a selkie before that’s possible, by human or selkie tradition. Informed consent.” When he smiled again, his teeth were back to normal, and somehow it was less inviting and more grimace. “And we do still need to verify the bindings of the other beasts.”

Well, they could still go on vacation together.

“Spring break then.”

At that Alex seemed to give him a genuine smile. “Summer at the latest, surely.” 

He reached out a hand to shake with Cait and Chowder and then Nursey, before clasping Dex’s bicep. “I am proud of you. I wish we could do more for the magic fray, but most of our methods are preventative.”

Nursey was mollified enough by the knowledge that they at least acknowledged that Dex was in a ton of pain and had tried to help him that he stayed quiet until they were alone again in his dorm. 

“So, no marriage, but engagement is okay, right?”

Dex stared at him for a moment before shrugging. “I’d think so. Equivalent of the betrothal. Are you really serious about this?”

“So serious.”

“Waiting isn’t a bad idea, though. You might change your mind.”

Nursey snorted. “Yo, chill, Poindexter. I’ve never once changed my mind in my _life_.”

He was rewarded with a smile. “Sure. But also it gives you more time to plan.”

“And we can still go on vacation over break.” 

“I could probably swim down there, no problem.”

“Or, you can let me buy you a plane ticket like a normal person.”

“I’m normal.”


End file.
